Aging and aneuploidy

Researchers have named another way to combat aging

Ilya Vedmedenko, Naked Science

The fight against aging is no less important for science than the opposition to individual dangerous diseases (especially since there is the most direct relationship between old age and diseases). Meanwhile, improving the quality of life can no longer significantly increase its duration, so many researchers say that residents of developed post-industrial countries have reached their "biological maximum". To advance further, scientists first need to understand in detail the mechanisms responsible for aging.

Portuguese experts have now presented their conclusions on this subject (Macedo et al., Molecular basis of mitotic decline during human aging, bioRxiv).

As the body ages, the number of cells with pronounced aneuploidy increases – a change in the number of chromosomes. Experiments on laboratory mice have shown that if they disrupt the mechanism that is responsible for mitosis (indirect cell division), animals will be susceptible to premature aging. It is worth noting that during mitosis, chromosomes acquire a place between two new nuclei. 

After the described stage, the researchers analyzed the markers of aging in fibroblast cells, which were isolated from European males of various ages. The results showed that the aging of the body is most directly affected by the suppression of the transcription factor Forkhead box M1 (FoxM1). It is responsible for regulating the activity of genes that control cell division.

By increasing the level of the Forkhead box M1 protein in cells taken from elderly and progeria sufferers, aneuploidy was largely prevented. Scientists believe that their findings will help develop therapeutic methods that can slow down the aging of the human body.

It is worth saying that the experience of "our lesser brothers" can be useful in the fight against aging. Moreover, some of them do not suffer from the problems described above. Recently, for example, another group of scientists confirmed that naked diggers do not age and do not begin to die more often with age. For decades of studying these animals, experts have analyzed 3,299 diggers. It was found that the probability of death in an adult is approximately 0.0001, regardless of the number of years lived.

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