Paint for prolonging life
Worms fed yellow paint live longer
Anastasia Kazantseva, STRF.ru
Researchers from the USA have demonstrated that the laboratory dye thioflavin T, or basic yellow, prolongs the life of the worm Caenorhabditis elegans, a popular research object. The dye is used to detect amyloid plaques. Perhaps it is able to bind to other improperly folded proteins and neutralize their harmful effects. An article about the study was published on the website of the journal Nature (Silvestre Alavezet al., Amyloid-binding compounds maintain protein homeostasis during aging and extend lifespan).
Each protein is a long chain of amino acids folded in a certain way. If the protein is folded incorrectly, then at best it will simply not work, and at worst it will become dangerous for the cell. For example, in Alzheimer's disease, plaques from improperly folded beta-amyloid protein accumulate in the nervous tissue, which probably play an important role in the pathogenesis of the disease. It is believed that protein structure disorders are associated with many pathological processes and play an important role in the aging of the body.
Gordon Lithgow from the Institute for Aging Research and his colleagues studied whether substances that bind improperly folded proteins can prolong the life of laboratory worms. It turned out that the dye thioflavin T, used to detect amyloid plaques, prolongs the life of not only those worms that accumulate beta-amyloid, but also other strains. Curcumin, a substance that gives yellow color to curry seasoning, and rifampicin, a substance used as a cure for tuberculosis and also able to bind to improperly folded proteins, have a similar, although less pronounced, effect. "We think that the dye can stabilize improperly folded proteins and activate the process of their utilization in the cell," Gordon Lithgow is quoted as saying by the Nature News: Dying for a long Life website. (For those who also know English imperfectly: "Dying" here is not "dying", but "painted". Such homonyms are VM.)
C. elegans worms do not live long – most animals die by the twentieth day after birth. If the animals received 50 millimoles of thioflavin T with food, then many of them lived up to 30 days. At a dose of 100 millimoles, some worms reached almost 40. A further increase in the dose, however, does not help, and even becomes dangerous. But the achieved extension of the life of worms by 78 percent is also an impressive result.
Scientists investigated the effect of the substance on different strains of C. elegans. In particular, it was found that thioflavin T does not affect the lifespan of worms with a mutation in the hsf-1 gene. This means that one of the important mechanisms of action of the dye is the activation of the HSF–1 protein (Heat Shock Factor 1). This transcription factor has long been in the focus of attention of molecular biologists, because it triggers the synthesis of a number of proteins responsible for combating various disorders in the cell.
Of course, it's too early to talk about a cure for aging for people, but research on a promising substance will continue. So far, people can eat curry, but caution should be exercised: it can be assumed that yellow dyes themselves cause stress in the cell, from which it is very effectively saved by increasing the synthesis of protective proteins.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru01.04.2011