Scientists Move One Step Closer To Solving the Puzzle of Aging

Sep, 2021 - By WMR

The main reason behind aging is the aging of cells, the cell stops dividing and the body starts aging.

The human body consists of trillions of living cells. Scientists have studied earlier that cell aging is affected by the influence of genes which also consequently affects the life span of humans. Jiyue Zhu headed a research team that studied a region of DNA called VNTR2-1. Telomerase gene’s activity is speeded by this region. This task shows the prevention of aging in some cells.

Telomeres are located at the end of each strand of DNA. They protect the chromosomes within our cells. The activity of these enzymes is controlled by telomeres genes. This produces telomeres. Usually, in the normal cell, the length of the telomeres shortens resulting in no reproduction of cells. This ultimately led to the aging and death of the cell.

But in some cases like a cancer cell and reproductive cell, telomeres genes make sure its activity of resting to the same length is continued when they copy the DNA. This saved information is the reason behind the aging in newborns and also the same reason behind the reproduction of cancerous cells in tumor formation. After studying the working of telomeres genes it is possible for further research about aging factors that can be avoided and also find the solution for the cancer cell to curb its multiplication.

Professor Jiyue Zhu along with his team experimented and found in both human and mouse cells that if the DNA sequence is deleted from cancer cells, it shortens the telomeres, ages the cell, and thus tumors can be stopped. They carried out studies with DNA samples from countries worldwide. The results showed that people with longer sequences had active telomere genes. He also added that short telomere length can prevent from developing cancer. Since the study looks complicated the research will be now focused more on studying junk DNA.