Genetics of aging: lecture notes
Anti-Aging Science
Tatiana Novgorodskaya, "Science and Life"Scientists around the world are now looking for means to slow down aging and increase life expectancy.
They told about today's results and successes in this area at a scientific conference held in Moscow.
At the end of April, the Russian Academy of Sciences hosted the international scientific conference "Genetics of Aging and Life Expectancy", where leading researchers from around the world met. Scientists discussed the problems of life extension. What is real about today's anti-aging science?
According to Dr. Andrzej Bartke from the Medical School of Southern Illinois University (USA), today there is an imbalance of consumed and burned energy, which leads to an imbalance in the body. The solution to the problem can be the adjustment of physical activity and dietary nutrition.
Professor of the N.N. Petrov Research Institute of Oncology (St. Petersburg) Vladimir Anisimov believes that today we are close to the means of influencing the aging processes and the appearance of tumors - and not only in experiments, but also in clinics. But for practical application, we need the right conclusions about what aging is and what cancer is. "I recently got my hands on a book published in 1915 in Petrograd by Peter Schmidt, a private associate professor at Petrograd University," the scientist says. – It is called "The Struggle with old Age" and it describes the state of gerontology at that time (since I. Mechnikov). Thanks to this book, I analyzed what new things have happened in 100 years, and concluded for myself: we must be careful about all the recommendations we give, because a lot is still unknown, there are many pitfalls and we must follow the Hippocratic rule "do no harm"."
"When you make a forecast, most often it does not come true," says Robert Schmuckler Rise, representing the University of Arkansas Medical Center. "It's also possible that the biggest breakthrough has already been made."
"Significant discoveries have been made over the past 10 years," says Dr. Vera Gorbunova from the University of Rochester (USA). – Aging is associated with DNA damage and repair, genomic instability and mutations, as well as genome restructuring and the occurrence of inversions and translocations of genes. With age, the number of cancers and gene damage increases. Something is going wrong in the body. Which DNA signaling pathways are affected? In which specific molecules do changes occur? The SIRT6 protein responsible for DNA "repair" and stimulating repair processes has been found today. In young cells, SIRT6 helps to repair damage under stress. How does it help recovery in aging cells? All living organisms age. And in animals that live a long time, the repair is better. DNA repair is not correlated with body weight – there is no difference between a large animal or a small one. It turned out that centenarians have a greater ability to repair DNA. The question is, can this mechanism be transferred to people?"
A group of researchers from the University of Rochester, led by Vera Gorbunova and Andrey Seluyanov, studied the aging processes in small animals, today it is the turn of long–lived organisms and animals that do not suffer from cancer. For example, a naked digger lives for 30 years and does not have cancer. It turned out that the cells of this rodent synthesize a lot of hyaluronic acid and they do not develop cancer. If you remove hyaluronic acid from their body (add an enzyme that destroys it), then these animals begin to get cancer.
Claudio Franceschi from the University of Bologna (Italy) relies on lifestyle studies and the state of the body of long-lived people, because this is what can give a lot of useful information. Nutrition and bacterial composition of the body, physical and stress loads are among the main factors affecting the aging of the body. Studies of centenarians, for example, have shown that they have a positive perception of life, they easily cope with stress, are conservative and attached to their circle. Centenarians are, as a rule, people who come from families of centenarians. They do not overeat, they work with constant physical activity. Perhaps they are not the most educated yet.
Claudio Franceschi is a pioneer in the study of centenarians who, at the age of 100 or more, remain full of life. Aging is a mosaic phenomenon, each cell of the body ages at its own rate and this is a systemic situation. The phenotype of aging, the Italian scientist believes, is the result of adaptation to accumulated and accumulated diseases, it is an immune response to DNA repair.
"The aging process is complicated: there are age–related changes, but they can be delayed," says Dr. Franceschi. – The p53 protein, a well-known marker of malignant tumors, is also present in long-lived women who do not suffer from breast cancer. Although there is a risk of the disease, but it does not manifest itself. Another example: today the term "inflammatory aging" has appeared. In the body of centenarians, inflammatory processes occur, and even an increased level of them is observed. At the same time, there are no basic manifestations that would somehow hint at these processes." Centenarians are quite slender people, there are no insulin-resistant among them. As a rule, they have hypofunction of the thyroid gland, and their descendants have the same genetic set. Perhaps all this protects them from cancer. But centenarians often have sarcopenia – an age-related atrophic degenerative change in skeletal muscles, leading to a gradual loss of muscle mass and strength.
Studies of centenarians and so–called new centenarians, people over 80 years old – descendants of parents who are not centenarians, have shown that children of centenarians are more athletic, their waist is narrower, they are less on medication. However, they have high markers (indicators) of inflammation. This can play a crucial role, because the anti-inflammatory response of the body of centenarians is very high.
In several European countries, 2,568 pairs of sisters and brothers aged over 90 years were studied. DNA analysis was carried out on them and their descendants to find out how much they inherit longevity factors. Finland, the Nordic countries, Italy and Greece stood out for longevity. It turned out that longevity is inherited on the maternal side. In Italy, the number of centenarians is increasing from north to south. Moreover, there are 3.5 times more female centenarians than men (the exception is only in Sardinia, this indicator is 1:1).
1228 people were compared with two thousand healthy young people. The genotype of all the study participants was studied in detail. The risk of Alzheimer's disease was detected in 22% of Finns, 16% of Danes. In Italy: 4% of southern Italians, 7% of northern Italians, in Sardinia – 5%. In general, there are a lot of genetic changes in everyone. At the same time, the children of centenarians have the level of younger people, and not their peers from the group of "new centenarians".
It is known that people with Down syndrome, in addition to intellectual development disorders, experience rapid aging (immune and brain activity). 32 families participated in the research. It was found that their mothers and unaffected siblings have a CpG biomarker of age. Brothers, sisters and mothers of people with Down syndrome are biologically three years older than their peers.
Studies have also been conducted among diabetics. It turned out that there is a big difference between diabetes and diabetes with complications, which affects the life expectancy of people with this disease.
It is noted that mortality decreases after reaching the age of 80-85 years. Older people die less often. This is due to the adaptation of the body to stress.
"It's difficult for us to predict the future and, perhaps, the answers are where we don't expect at all," says Judy Campisi from the Research Institute on Aging (USA). "There are now promising medical technologies related to cell therapy and stem cells." Dr. Campisi also asks another question: can we afford to live for a long time with the existing lack of resources? In her opinion, the main thing here is that we live a healthier life and can benefit society until the end of life, so that the period of feeble old age is as short as possible.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru16.05.2012