Scienceblogtwo

With the help of physics and a small magnet, researchers have identified a new structure for telomeric DNA. Many experts believe that telomeres hold the answer to extending life. They shield genes from harm, although they shrink a little bit with each cell division. If they shrink too much, the cell perishes. This ground-breaking discovery will improve our understanding of disease and aging. Physics is typically not the first branch of knowledge that comes to mind when discussing DNA. But one of the researchers that discovered the novel DNA structure is John van Noort from the Leiden Institute of Physics (LION) in the Netherlands. He conducts biological studies using physics techniques as a biophysicist. He was approached to assist in the study of the DNA composition of telomeres by biologists from Nanyan Technological University in Singapore after their attention was drawn to this as well. On September 14, the findings were published in the peer-reviewed journal Nature. Our chromosome...

A recent study from Oregon State University found that as people age, the negative effects of lifetime exposure to blue light from phones, computers, and home lights get worse. The study, which was just released in Nature Partner Journals Aging, used the familiar fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster. Due to the fact that it shares cellular and developmental mechanisms with humans and other animals, Drosophila melanogaster is a valuable model organism. The survival rate of flies maintained in darkness and then moved to an environment of constant blue light from light-emitting diodes, or LEDs, at progressively older ages was investigated by a team under the direction of Jaga Giebultowicz, an expert in biological clocks at the OSU College of Science. The age-related changes from darkness to light occurred at two, twenty, forty, and sixty days. The study concentrated on the effects of blue light on the mitochondria of the flies' cells. Adenosine triphosphate, or ATP, is a chemical energy...

In mice missing a protective protein in their eyes, age-related macular degeneration-like symptoms appear. The loss of the protein pigment epithelium-derived factor (PEDF), which safeguards retinal support cells, may hasten age-related alterations in the retina, infers a recent National Eye Institute (NEI) study in mice. Given that the retina is the light-sensitive tissue at the back of the eye, age-related retinal illnesses such age-related macular degeneration (AMD) can result in blindness. The newly discovered facts might aid in the creation of drugs to halt AMD and other age-related disorders of the retina. In the International Journal of Molecular Sciences, the study was published. The National Institutes of Health includes NEI. According to Patricia Becerra, Ph.D., head of the NEI's Section of Protein Structure and Function and senior author of the study, PEDF has been referred to as the "youth" protein because it is plentiful in juvenile retinas but drops with agin...

Four epigenetic "clock" measures, spanning from 1.9 to 4.8 years, revealed a significant age acceleration in HIV-infected individuals that was not present in non-infected individuals. (Image: An HIV-infected immunological cell.) Photograph courtesy of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) A UCLA-led study found that alterations at the DNA level can speed up aging by about five years. Researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles claim that HIV has a "early and substantial" impact on how quickly infected individuals age, increasing biochemical changes in the body linked to normal aging within two to three years of infection. The findings suggest that a new HIV infection may reduce a person's life expectancy by about five years when compared to someone who is not affected. Lead author Elizabeth Crabb Breen, a professor emerita at UCLA's Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology and of psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences ...