Vision and hearing in one gene
The development of age-related diseases will help predict genes
A large international group of scientists from the UK and France has discovered that a mutation in a gene that was previously thought to be responsible for vision leads to hearing loss in old age, reports Infox.
In many developed countries, life expectancy has increased, but at the same time the number of age-related diseases has also increased. Usually, with age, cardiovascular diseases appear, the risk of developing diabetes mellitus, Alzheimer's disease, dementia increases. Knowing the mechanism of occurrence of these diseases in the elderly, in the future, it is quite possible that ways will be found to prevent them.
The researchers conducted their research on mice, examining their genome from the moment of birth as they age. Scientists have discovered a mutation of the Slc4a10 gene in aging animals. Previously, it was known that this gene is responsible for the work of vision, but in their study, the authors managed to show for the first time that its mutation leads to hearing loss.
According to scientists, in the future, genes that are responsible for the development of other age-related diseases will also be found. Then molecular genetic screening of the elderly will allow to identify those who have a high risk of developing certain diseases.
"Our study helps to understand which genes are associated with the occurrence of age–related diseases, which means that in the end a way will be found to prevent these diseases," says (in a Medical Research Council Researchers identify gene associated with age-related hearing loss - VM) one of the authors of the study, Dr. Lindsay Wilson (Lindsay Wilson).
The authors report on the results of their research in the latest issue of the journal Nature Communications (Potter et al., Novel gene function revealed by mouse mutagenesis screens for models of age-related disease).
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26.08.2016