Robbery in Italian
The secret of longevity has been stolen
14 thousand DNA samples were stolen from a laboratory in Sardinia
Alla Salkova, Newspaper.
Italian police are investigating the theft of thousands of DNA samples that were collected to study the secrets of longevity. DNA samples of Sardinian residents were collected more than 10 years ago. The attention of scientists was attracted by the record life expectancy of Sardinians: for example, in the province of Ogliastra, about every two thousand inhabitants live to 100 years – an indicator five times higher than in most developed countries. Previously, it was believed that the reason lies in nutrition and the state of the environment. However, scientists dream of finding the genetic basis of longevity, which have been found, for example, in the case of cardiovascular diseases. So, the company DeCode Genetics, analyzing the DNA of 2636 Icelanders in May 2016, found a gene mutation that reduces the risk of heart attack by a third.
The investigation in Italy began a few weeks after the British biotech company Tiziana Life Sciences acquired the rights to samples from the bankrupt company Parco Genetico. The investigation was headed by Prosecutor Biagio Mazzeo.
According to him, about 14 thousand vials with Sardinian blood disappeared from the laboratory in the commune of Perdasdefogu.
The rest of the samples remained untouched (there were 230 thousand samples in total in the laboratory). According to the Guardian (Thousands of Sardinian DNA samples go missing from research laboratory), Mazzeo believes that the samples were secretly taken out of the laboratory by someone from the staff, as there are no signs of hacking. The alleged theft was committed in August. Information about her was made public in the press this week, but investigators say it is unknown when exactly the samples disappeared. On August 10, the loss was discovered by one of the employees who has been running the laboratory for many years.
The question of who owns the rights to the missing test tubes is not completely clear – most of them were collected by two companies that worked together, but then their paths diverged.
So, according to Mazzeo, the missing samples were the property of Parco Genetico, a state-funded company that was recently bought by a citizen of Sardinia, Piergiorgio Lorray. In August, he said that his task was to protect the interests of local residents from the illegal exploitation of their DNA.
Parco Genetico worked closely with the privately funded company Shardna, which was forced to file for bankruptcy after the previous owner had serious financial difficulties. Shardna's assets were acquired by Tiziana, which last month announced that it now considers DNA samples in Perdasdefogu its property.
For the samples, Tiziana paid Shardna €258 thousand, which caused discontent among some Sardinians.
According to them, thousands of residents donated their genetic material so that it would benefit humanity, not profit companies. However, Tiziana insisted that the repurchase of samples was part of the standard bankruptcy procedure and occurred with the permission of the Italian court.
Tiziana executives declined to comment. Napoleone Ferrara, chairman of the company, only stated that the deal gave the company the opportunity to study DNA samples from a homogeneous and well-characterized cross-section of the population, the study of which could shed light on the mechanisms of aging and disease.
The territories where the largest number of centenarians live are called "blue zones".
This term, introduced by scientists Gianni Pesom and Michel Poulin, became widespread thanks to the book by researcher, writer and journalist Dan Buettner "Blue zones", where he deduces nine rules that guarantee a long life.
The reasons for longevity and ways to prolong life are of interest to scientists and researchers in many countries. So, in Russia there is a foundation "Science for Life Extension", organized in 2008 by Mikhail Batin, who considers aging and death as a disease and believes that it is quite realistic to find a cure, in experiments on animals and insects, scientists managed to extend the life of experimental subjects from 20% to tenfold.
And in September 2015, the head of the American biotech company BioViva, Elizabeth Parrish, underwent a gene procedure that slows down aging. Parrish received two injections, the first – follistatin protein, responsible for the regeneration and growth of muscle tissue, the second – with genetic material for the production of telomerase, a protein involved in the formation of telomeres (end sections of chromosomes). With age, telomeres shorten, and scientists believe that lengthening them with the help of gene therapy may be one of the ways to prolong life. However, the details of the experiment put on Parrish are not disclosed and there is no documentary evidence that it was carried out at all, so the public and scientists were very skeptical about it.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru
15.09.2016