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Monday, March 17, 2008

Genes found in worms may help delay old age

Scientists have discovered more than a dozen genes that play a crucial role in the ageing process, raising hopes of treatments to delay old age.

By piecing together how different genes contribute to ageing, researchers expect to find ways to slow the process and treat diseases associated with growing old. Ultimately, scientists aim to develop pills that block the effects of age-related genes, and so extend the natural human life span.

Brian Kennedy at the University of Washington in Seattle and his team looked for genes that control the ageing process in two primitive organisms, yeast cells and nematode worms.

The two organisms are separated by 1.5 billion years of evolution, so any genes they have in common are likely to be crucial to life and may even have similar versions in humans. "Nematodes and humans are more similar to each other on an evolutionary scale than nematodes and yeast," said Erica Smith, the first author of the study. "We reasoned that if a particular gene modulates ageing in both yeast and nematodes, there is a good chance that gene plays a similar role in people."

The researchers began by scouring the scientific literature for genes that have an influence on the life span of nematode worms. The worms are often used in ageing research because they have a short natural life span and are easy to genetically modify. The scientists found that of the 276 genes known to affect ageing in nematode worms, only 25 were also present in yeast. At least 15 of these have similar versions in humans.

Closer inspection revealed that many of the genes were linked to chemical signals triggered by food. Previous studies have shown clearly that drastically reducing the number of calories in an organism's diet can prolong its life span, though often at the expense of fertility. If scientists can find out how age-related genes are affected by an extremely low-calorie diet, they may be able to repeat the effect without resorting to such measures.

"What we'd like to eventually do is mimic the effects of dietary restriction with a drug," said Matt Kaeberlein, a co-author on the paper, which appears in the journal Genome Research. "Most people don't want to cut their diet that drastically, just so they may live a little longer. But some day in the future, we may be able to accomplish the same thing with a pill." Kennedy said they also hoped to lengthen the "health span''before people suffer age-related illnesses

By Ian Sample

Source:http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/008200803131021.htm


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