Unique breakthrough Found the path to eternal life

Researchers are deciphering the aging process and cancer-affecting enzyme

Researchers have now completed research that lasted twenty years and looked for a complex enzyme that could prevent the aging process and the development of cancer. To do this, the experts repaired the tips of chromosomes in plants, animals and humans.

The University of California, Berkeley scientists have completed an investigation into the impact of chromosomes on cancer and aging. The physicians published the results of their current study in the English language journal "Nature".

Will it be possible in the future to stop or slow down the aging process by manipulating our telomeres? (Image: Syda Productions / fotolia.com)

Physicians decode architecture of telomerase

The decryption of the enzyme's architecture, called telomerase, could lead to the development of new drugs to slow down or block the aging process or to open up new treatments for cancer. The results of the study provide a structural framework for a better understanding of mutations in human telomerase disease and are an important step towards telomerase-related clinical therapeutics, said study author Kathleen Collins of the University of California, Berkeley. Telomerase affects microscopic envelopes, called telomeres, that cover the tips of chromosomes in all cells.

What are telomeres?

In humans, each cell contains 23 pairs of chromosomes, including a pair of sex chromosomes (the X and Y chromosome), which differ in men and women. Australian-American biologist Elizabeth Blackburn, who received the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 2009 for the discovery of telomeres and their protective function in the 1970s, compared them to the tiny plastic caps that protect laces from fraying.

How do telomeres turn off??

At some point, however, the telomeres decay. Each time a cell divides, the telomeres become a little more worn out until the cell stops dividing and dies. This is probably very important for the natural aging process, say the doctors. In 1985, Blackburn discovered telomerase and its remarkable ability to extend the life of a cell by rebuilding telomeres with additional pieces of DNA, as it were, like retreading a tire. In other words, telomeres may be key to improving longevity and impacting various diseases, say the physicians.

Disadvantages of a lack of telomerase

Inherited genetic mutations that interfere with telomerase function cause disorders, the researchers said. A deficiency of the enzyme could accelerate cell death. On the other hand, too much telomerase supports unrestrained cell growth in most human cancers. Previous efforts to develop drugs that control the expression of the enzyme have been hampered by an incomplete understanding of the structure and organization of the telomerase complex, the researchers add.

Cryoelectron microscope decoded molecular structures

To crack the telomerase code, researchers used a state-of-the-art cryo-EM that allowed them to see the enzyme in action at unprecedented resolutions of seven or eight angstroms. An Angstrom is a unit of length and a ten-billionth of a meter long. Cryo-EM can decode the molecular structures of compounds that can not be crystallized and imaged with X-rays. The developers of the technology received the 2017 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

Can the aging process be reversed in the future?

A 2010 study showed that in mice treated with telomerase, the aging process was reversed. And in 2011, scientists found a way to turn age-related cells of people over the age of 90 years into rejuvenated stem cells that are indistinguishable from those in embryos. In several laboratory experiments, several critical aging markers in cells have already been reset, including the size of telomeres. (As)