EXTENDING WORM'S LIFE GIVES CLUE ON AGING.Byline: Shankar Vedantam Knight-Ridder Tribune News Wire A tantalizing tan·ta·lize tr.v. tan·ta·lized, tan·ta·liz·ing, tan·ta·liz·es To excite (another) by exposing something desirable while keeping it out of reach. clue about the secrets of aging has fallen into place: Scientists studying a tiny transparent worm have found ways to make it live longer. The worm typically lives 15 days. But Siegfried Hekimi, a biologist at McGill University McGill University, at Montreal, Que., Canada; coeducational; chartered 1821, opened 1829. It was named for James McGill, who left a bequest to establish it. Its real development dates from 1855 when John W. Dawson became principal. in Montreal, and his colleagues report in today's issue of the journal Science that worms with a mutation mutation, in biology, a sudden, random change in a gene, or unit of hereditary material, that can alter an inheritable characteristic. Most mutations are not beneficial, since any change in the delicate balance of an organism having a high level of adaptation to its in a certain gene live as long as 20 days. The difference is huge in terms of the worm's life span: a full one-third longer. It's as if the average life span of humans - say 75 years now - were suddenly raised to 100. The scientists say the discovery brings them a step closer to understanding how animals, plants, birds - and humans - grow old. Still, the research also indicates that aging is so complex that it may be years before scientists figure it out. Most interesting to the scientists was the fact that a worm with a mutated gene seemed to ``slow down.'' It moved slower, ate slower, even, Hekimi said, ``pooped'' slower. ``There is a link between metabolism and aging,'' said Leonard Guarente, a biologist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Massachusetts Institute of Technology, at Cambridge; coeducational; chartered 1861, opened 1865 in Boston, moved 1916. It has long been recognized as an outstanding technological institute and its Sloan School of Management has notable programs in business, . ``Life span may be some fixed allotment of metabolism.'' Previous research into aging had reached the same conclusion: Severely restricting the food intake of animals seems to prolong pro·long tr.v. pro·longed, pro·long·ing, pro·longs 1. To lengthen in duration; protract. 2. To lengthen in extent. life, perhaps because the lack of food somehow slows down the animal's metabolism. Scientists called the worm gene the Clock-1 gene. They found the gene became active very early in the worm's development, that it started ``ticking'' right from when the worm was inside an egg. The same gene works in yeast yeast, name applied specifically to a certain group of microscopic fungi and to commercial products consisting of masses of dried yeast cells or of yeast mixed with a starchy material and pressed into yeast cakes. , a single-cell animal, and other organisms. Although these organisms are far removed evolutionarily from humans, cellular mechanisms in them are replicated in higher animals: Once nature decides on an evolutionary tack, it sticks to it. ``You can't study the nervous system in worms, because they don't have nervous systems, you can't study language in worms, because they don't use language,'' Hekimi said. ``But anything you can study will be relevant in higher organisms. That has been systematically proven.'' What the new research indicates, the scientists said, is that from the day we were born, perhaps even from the moment of conception, there is a ticking ticking a coat color pigmentation pattern in which hairs of one color are distributed in small groups throughout the background color, e.g. Australian cattle dog. Called also speckling. genetic clock in every single cell of our bodies. What does the finding of cellular aging mean for humans? Are we going to develop some medical fountain of youth Fountain of Youth legendary fountain of eternal youth. [World Legend: Brewer Dictionary, 432] See : Unattainability anytime soon? ``I don't think so,'' Guarente said. ``Even if we could control to some degree the pace of aging, what would probably happen is we would postpone the infirmities of old age. We would maintain vigor VIGOR Internal medicine A clinical study–Vioxx GI Outcomes Report comparing a proprietary COX-2 inhibitor to standard NSAIDs longer, but we wouldn't have a huge impact on life span.'' Scientists say the only sure way to get humans to live substantially longer is to ban sex until people are, say, 50 - a price that may seem too steep. But our genes would then adapt strategies to keep us alive longer. Nature wants to keep us alive long enough to reproduce and rear babies. ``Life span is probably the result of the action of all your genes,'' Hekimi said. ``The only way to alter it substantially would be to change all your genes. There's only one mechanism known to do that. It's called evolution.'' |
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