Tuesday, December 2, 2014

Italian Scientists Link Gene to Longer Life

A team of Italian scientists made an amazing discovery in the genetics of longevity in mice. The discovery's effects is unknown in humans but it could lead to the drugs that postpone the effects of aging.


Oxygen creates many byproducts within the body that can corrode our bodies cells. To battle the corruption of cells and DNA the cells are "programmed" to self destruct before the damage becomes too great and the damaged cells become cancerous cells. The team has studied the gene that makes a protein that triggers the "self-destruct" process in those cells in their response to too much oxygen damage, mice that lacked the trigger protein lived thirty percent longer than normal, with no apparent side effects.

Although the mice were genetically unable to self destruct their damaged cells, they are presumably living longer because they are no longer being zapped by the self destruct mechanism even though they are genetically suffering oxygen damage.

Dr. Pelicci says that the trigger protein belongs to a class of proteins in which many inhibitory drugs are known and it shouldn't be to difficult to create a drug to block the trigger.

Phenotype modification occurs when the expression of one gene alters the expression of another gene. Gene modifiers can cause enhanced phenotypes or reduced phenotypes, and in this case it would be living longer in mice and hopefully drugs that postpone aging in humans.

Caloric restriction is already known to benefit life span in mice and creating a drug that mimics the effects of caloric restriction without the hassle and pain would be extremely valuable.

The downside of caloric restriction in mice however is the reduced fertility, but the fertility of the mice with the blocked trigger protein appears to be normal, but Dr. Pelicci is skeptical that the fertility effect of the blocked trigger protein is too mild to have been detected yet.



Article Link: http://www.nytimes.com/1999/11/18/us/scientists-link-a-single-gene-to-longer-life-in-mice.html
Secondary Link:Modifier Genes in Mice and Humans

2 comments:

  1. I never knew that cells are built to self-destruct if they become a hazard to the whole system. There is a lot of possibilities if we find a way to block specific protein triggers.

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  2. Even though one can live longer it doesn't necessarily mean someone would be getting the quality of life.

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