Breakdown of Gene Coordination During Aging Suggests a Substantial Challenge to Longevity (IMAGE)
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Using a novel approach from physics, researchers from Bar-Ilan University developed a computational method that quantifies the coordination level between different genes. With this approach, they measured the gene activity of individual cells and compared cells from old and young subjects, discovering phenomena never before observed: old cells lost significant coordination levels compared to young cells. To test the consistency of this phenomenon, they analyzed data collected from more than twenty experiments from six different labs around the world. In all cases they found reduced levels of coordination during aging among different organisms: human, mice and fruit flies, and among different cell types: brain cells, Hematopoietic stem cells, pancreatic cells and more. The researchers also observed coordination reduction in tissues with an increased level of damage, suggesting a direct link between increased damage level and coordination breakdown. The findings support the theory suggested 15 years ago by Prof. Jan Vijg that during aging accumulated random damage affects regulation mechanisms and disrupts the ability of genes to coordinate (resulting in a general decrease in tissue function), just like an orchestra without proper coordination between musicians ruins a symphony. This study, published in the journal Nature Metabolism, conclusively demonstrates the long-speculated relationship between aging, gene regulation and somatic damage. The results open up new avenues of research with practical implications. If the same level of coordination reduction between genes is indeed a leading cause for aging phenomena, there may be a need to change course in current efforts to develop aging treatments. Photo: During aging, cells accumulate random damage. A fundamental question in aging is how such a stochastic process may eventually lead to aging phenotypes.
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Alon Dotan
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