Scientists have discovered a gene that controls brain aging
Scientists have discovered an unusual gene in human DNA, mutations of which can accelerate brain aging in old age by decades and or slow it down with similar force, according to an article published in the journal Cell Systems (Rhinn, Abeliovich, Differential Aging Analysis in Human Cerebral Cortex Identifies Variants in TMEM106B and GRN that Regulate Aging Phenotypes).
"If you look at the elderly, some of them will look unusually old, while others will look unusually young. The same thing happens in the frontal cortex, the region of the brain responsible for the work of the mind. We found out that many of these differences are related to variations in the TMEM106B gene. In people who have two "bad" copies of this gene, the frontal cortex looks 12 years older than in older people with two normal versions of TMEM106B," explains Asa Abeliovich from Columbia University in New York (in a press release Brain–Aging Gene Discovered - VM).
In recent years, a debate has revived among scientists about what constitutes the aging process and the death of humans and animals. Some biologists and evolutionists believe that it is controlled by a kind of "death program" – a certain set of genes that causes the body to become decrepit and die, giving way to a new generation of their own kind.
Abelevich and his colleagues discovered one of the potential aging genes by comparing DNA samples from almost two thousand pieces of brain donated for science by people who died of natural causes and did not suffer from Alzheimer's disease, multiple sclerosis or other neurodegenerative disorders.
Studying these genomes, scientists compared not only the structure of the genes themselves, but also how actively brain cells read them. This allowed us to reveal not only how differences in the structure of genes affected the work of the cortex and other layers of the brain, but also to understand how the nature of their work changed as the body aged.
Comparing how the "pattern" of gene activity differed in different elderly people and how their cortex looked, Abelevich and his colleagues identified several DNA sites that influenced the rate of brain aging.
Most of all, as the calculations of biologists showed, this process was influenced by the TMEM106B gene – a section of DNA responsible for the formation of connections between nerve cells and their purification from protein "garbage". Even small mutations in its structure affected the appearance of the cortex in old age, accelerating or slowing down its aging for several years, scientists found.
Interestingly, this gene was "turned on" only in old age, starting to affect the brain at about 65 years of age. Scientists do not yet know why this happens, but they assume that this is due to the inclusion of certain stress mechanisms at the onset of old age.
In addition, Abelevich's team managed to find a link between cortical aging and another gene – GRN, which performs similar functions, but affects brain senility to a much lesser extent. Scientists believe that there may be several dozen more such genes in human DNA that control the aging of various organs. Their study will help to understand whether it is possible to slow down the aging process and how to do it.
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16.03.2017