Provocation of aging
Biologists from Moscow State University artificially aged cells using a laser
Russian and foreign scientists were able to artificially age cells using special luminous proteins that cause breaks in DNA strands, according to an article published in the journal Aging (Petrova et al., Inducing cellular senescence in vitro by using genetically encoded photosensitizers).
"Our proposed method of provoking premature cellular aging may be in demand in further studies of this cellular phenomenon. The main advantage of our method is the possibility of contactless triggering of cellular aging by lighting cells growing in a cup," said Sergey Razin from Lomonosov Moscow State University in Moscow.
The genome of humans and other animals contains a huge number of "instructions" that control the work of the body during growth, normal life and aging. It is believed that the study of genetic mechanisms that turn on during old age will help prolong life and youth. Over the past two decades, scientists have identified many genes responsible for these processes, but none of them is suitable for the role of the main "gene of old age" or "eternal youth".
So far, scientists have not been able to find the "genes of youth", but they have already managed, in several different ways, to cause artificial aging of the body in experiments on individual cells and live laboratory mice. Such a procedure, as a rule, involves genetic manipulations that are irreversible in nature and begin to work virtually immediately after the introduction of such an "elixir of old age" into the body of an experimental animal.
Razin and his colleagues from Moscow State University, the Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Gene Biology of the Russian Academy of Sciences have found a way to cause such changes without changing the structure of DNA and without making other significant changes in the work of the body. To do this, experts have studied how cell cultures in test tubes react to various stress factors, including elevated temperature, acidity or lack of food.
Observing the reaction of cells to these stimuli, scientists have discovered that a cell can be artificially "aged" and forced to retire with almost 100% probability if damage appears in its DNA during the so-called S-phase of division. During this part of mitosis, the process of cell division, DNA self–copying takes place - a long and very "delicate" process that usually takes about 8-12 hours.
As it turned out, the appearance of even small mutations and "breaks" in DNA strands during their copying leads to the fact that the cell refuses further reproduction and retires, including the genetic aging program.
Razin and his colleagues have learned to cause such damage in an ingenious way – they have embedded special glowing protein molecules in the "wrapper" of the cell's DNA, which are able to absorb light at certain wavelengths and use this energy to produce molecular oxygen and other extremely aggressive molecules. Accordingly, by irradiating the cell during the onset of the S-phase of division, it is almost guaranteed to age it.
These proteins, as scientists note, were created in Russia by scientists from the IBH and IBG RAS, who previously managed to develop a technique for "inserting" genes for the production of such proteins into the DNA of living cells.
Why do scientists need to "age" cells? Such a technique, Razin and his colleagues hope, will help gerontologists and other specialists understand how aging develops naturally and how this process can be slowed down or stopped.
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08.11.2016