Free Republic

Regular aerobic exercise later in life prevents genomic instability characterized by DNA damage and telomere dysfunction, according to a study. "These new findings will greatly impact our understanding of the mechanisms of how aerobic exercise improves vascular health at the level of genomic stability," says Jisok Lim, Ph.D. Late-life exercise used to be thought of as ineffective. However, existing studies indicate aerobic exercise later in life lowers the risk of cardiovascular disease-related mortality. Yet, specific factors contributing to this effect have not been completely understood. Researchers examined whether regular exercise with aging may prevent DNA damage and telomere dysfunction. Telomeres...

A team of scientists has found that an existing cancer drug could be repurposed to target a subset of cancers that currently lack targeted treatment options and are often associated with poor outcomes. This subset of cancers makes up 15% of all cancers and is especially prevalent in aggressive tumors such as osteosarcoma (bone tumor) and glioblastoma (brain tumor). These cancerous cells stay "immortal" using a mechanism called the alternative lengthening of telomeres (ALT), but the team has demonstrated that ponatinib, a cancer drug approved by the US FDA, blocks key steps in the ALT mechanism that leads it to...

Animals that reproduce asexually by somatic cloning have special mechanisms that delay ageing provide exceptionally good health. Scientists at the University of Gothenburg have shown how colony-forming ascidians (or sea squirts) can activate the enzyme telomerase, which protects DNA. This enzyme is more active also in humans who attain an advanced age. "Animals that clone themselves, in which part of an individual's body is passes on to the next generations, have particularly interesting conditions related to remaining in good health to persist. This makes it useful to study these animals in order to understand mechanisms of ageing in humans", says...

Enlarge Image Golden years. Mice without active telomerase (right) look much older than those with the enzyme (left). Credit: Mariela Jaskelioff/Harvard Medical School In F. Scott Fitzgerald's short story, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," an old man gets younger with each passing day, a fantastic concept recently brought to life on film by Brad Pitt. In a lab in Boston, a research team has used genetic engineering to accomplish something similarly curious, turning frail-looking mice into younger versions of themselves by stimulating the regeneration of certain tissues. The study helps explain why certain organs and tissues break down...

Controversial theorist Aubrey de Grey insists that we are within reach of an engineered cure for aging. Are you prepared to live forever? On this glorious spring day in Cambridge, England, the heraldic flags are flying from the stone towers, and I feel like I could be in the 17th century—or, as I pop into the Eagle Pub to meet University of Cambridge longevity theorist Aubrey de Grey, the 1950s. It was in this pub, after all, that James Watson and Francis Crick met regularly for lunch while they were divining the structure of DNA and where, in February 1953,...

Every species seems to come and go. Some last longer than others, but nothing lasts forever. Humans are a relatively recent phenomenon, jumping out of trees and striding across the land around 200 000 years ago. Will we persist for many millions of years to come, or are we headed for an evolutionary makeover, or even extinction? According to Reinhard Stindl, of the Institute of Medical Biology in Vienna, the answer to this question could lie at the tips of our chromosomes. In a controversial new theory he suggests that all eukaryotic species (everything except bacteria and algae) have an...