Telomerase reverses ageing process

[Booster4324]

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Premature ageing can be reversed by reactivating an enzyme that protects the tips of chromosomes, a study in mice suggests.

 

Sounds very preliminary and quite possibly useless or even dangerous. However, if it panned out, the consequences could be both great and possibly backbreaking (overpopulation anyone?). Could solve the Social Security issue though, "Sorry, have to be 67, I don't care what your birth certificate says, you are clearly 20ish..."

[Wooderson]

Link

 

 

 

Sounds very preliminary and quite possibly useless or even dangerous. However, if it panned out, the consequences could be both great and possibly backbreaking (overpopulation anyone?). Could solve the Social Security issue though, "Sorry, have to be 67, I don't care what your birth certificate says, you are clearly 20ish..."

 

Could this quite possibly reverse the effects of cancer spreading throughout the body? In college, I recall my professor explaining that if you could slow down the shortening of telomerase then cancer would be more difficult to spread and therefore could be controlled, contained and prevented. Idk, I'm no genius it's just a snippet a remember hearing in college...or I could be completely incorrect.

 

Woops, probably should've read the whole article before I posted this.

 

The downside is that telomerase is often mutated in human cancers, and seems to help existing tumours grow faster. But DePinho argues that telomerase should prevent healthy cells from becoming cancerous in the first place by preventing DNA damage.

 

David Sinclair, a molecular biologist at Harvard Medical School in Boston, agrees there is evidence that activating telomerase might prevent tumours. If the treatment can be made safe, he adds, "it could lead to breakthroughs in restoring organ function in the elderly and treating a variety of diseases of aging."

Edited November 30, 2010 by Wooderson