Mexico City.- A team of scientists from the University of California in San Diego, USA, has found a way to ‘rebuild’ the biological clock. This studio could be a great advance in the fight against aging.
Human life expectancy is related to the aging of individual cells, which function as mini-factories, carrying out the necessary processes for life. But chemical reactions generate toxic waste that accumulate over time and can damage DNA and other cellular components. Therefore, the body destroys the old cells before they cause damage.
Three years ago, a group of researchers from the University of California identified the two directions that cells follow during aging and genetically manipulated these processes to extend their useful life.
Now, this same team has extended this investigation by designing a solution that prevents cells from reaching their normal levels of deterioration associated with aging. Yeast cells, plants, animals and humans contain regulatory circuits of genes that are responsible for many physiological functions, including aging, according to a statement from the university.
“These genetic circuits can function like our domestic electrical circuits that control devices such as household appliances and automobiles”, commented professor Nan Hao of the Department of Molecular Biology of the Faculty of Biological Sciences, lead author of the study.
Scientists have discovered that, with the control of the central circuit of genetic regulation, cells do not necessarily age at the same time. For example, as happens with a car that wears out the engine or the transmission mechanism, but not both parts at the same time.
In this study, researchers have genetically reorganized the circuit that controls cellular aging. So, they created a negative feedback loop to reverse this process. The rebuilt network works as a clock-like device. This is the so-called genetic oscillator, through which the cell periodically changes between two states of aging, avoiding a prolonged stay in one of them and slowing down the degeneration of the cell itself.
The method applied to the cells of a small unicellular yeast yeast prevented its aging at a normal rate. As a result of the experiment, the cells lived 82% longer than they should under normal circumstances.
Scientists believe that the new technique can be applied to human cells, such as mother cells and neurons. In theory, this would allow a person, if not to achieve immortality, at least live for much longer time, according to Science.
