Loss of male sex chromosome leads to earlier death for men (40% of 70 year olds lose “Y”)

Medical Xpress / University of Virginia / Science ^ | July 14, 2022 | Soichi Sano et al / Andreas Zeiher et al

[ConservativeMind]

The loss of the male sex chromosome as many men age causes the heart muscle to scar and can lead to deadly heart failure, new research shows. The finding may help explain why men die, on average, several years younger than women.

Kenneth Walsh, Ph.D., says the new discovery suggests that men who suffer Y chromosome loss—estimated to include 40% of 70-year-olds—may particularly benefit from an existing drug that targets dangerous tissue scarring. The drug, he suspects, may help counteract the harmful effects of the chromosome loss—effects that may manifest not just in the heart but in other parts of the body as well.

On average, women live five years longer than men in the United States. The new finding, Walsh estimates, may explain nearly four of the five-year difference.

…The scientists also looked at the effects of Y chromosome loss in human men. They conducted three analyses of data compiled from the UK Biobank, a massive biomedical database, and found that Y chromosome loss was associated with cardiovascular disease and heart failure. As chromosome loss increased, the scientists found, so did the risk of death.

Walsh notes that one potential treatment option might be a drug, pirfenidone, that has been approved by the federal Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, a form of lung scarring. The drug is also being tested for the treatment of heart failure and chronic kidney disease, two conditions for which tissue scarring is a hallmark. Based on his research, Walsh believes that men with Y chromosome loss could respond particularly well to this drug, and other classes of antifibrotic drugs that are being developed, though more research will be needed to determine that.

At the moment, doctors have no easy way to determine which men suffer Y chromosome loss.

[Still Thinking]

Damnit, where did I leave that thing now??!

[Caipirabob]

“And, they just disappear?”

If you are a democrat, they run away.