The cell nucleus is like a tent held up by internal supports. These supports, proteins called lamins, wear out with age, and the tent sags. Scientists have found the UBE3C protein, which works like a doorman at the entrance to the tent: it keeps the destroyers away from the supports.
In centenarians, this doorman is stronger. In the lab, cells with boosted UBE3C aged more slowly, while cells without it aged twice as fast. It turned out that UBE3C does not destroy proteins itself; it simply holds the destroyers by the hand and stops them from dragging the lamins off to be recycled.
For now this is just knowledge, but now scientists know what to aim at: they can try to boost UBE3C or block its opponent CKAP4. Then the tent of the nucleus would hold its shape longer, and cells would age more slowly.
Among 1799 genes involved in protein degradation, 87% change their activity with age. This highlights just how deeply aging affects the protein quality control system.
The idea of a nuclear "guardian" that could be enhanced to prolong cellular youth echoes the concept of geroprotectors in Kim Stanley Robinson's novel Aurora, where gene therapy is used to slow aging in the generations aboard a starship.
Not published on arXiv. Here are its page, the PDF and the formalization: you can check it yourself, not only read our account.