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From: "Brian P. Swann" <>
Subject: Re: [DNA] Flying Fur
Date: Mon, 16 May 2011 08:43:39 +0100
References: <52933095FDE44B09A3F600BCE4679CFA@kenPC><41064271D4824D3A9971243E23AFC9C4@robert>
In-Reply-To: <41064271D4824D3A9971243E23AFC9C4@robert>


This article was just picked up from one of the GenomeWeb alert articles
last week.

There are a number of folk looking at things like this below - which does
bring us back to mitochondria and mitochondrial DNA and its overlap into
telomeres - something which was not immediately obvious, to my mind at
least. This is an abstract from a 2007 article, but I am pretty certain I
have a 2010 one on my desktop at work.

Cellular senescence is the ultimate and irreversible loss of replicative
capacity occurring in primary somatic cell culture. It is triggered as a
stereotypic response to unrepaired nuclear DNA damage or to uncapped
telomeres. In addition to a direct role of nuclear DNA double-strand breaks
as inducer of a DNA damage response, two more subtle types of DNA damage
induced by physiological levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS) can have a
significant impact on cellular senescence: Firstly, it has been established
that telomere shortening, which is the major contributor to telomere
uncapping, is stress dependent and largely caused by a telomere-specific DNA
single-strand break repair inefficiency. Secondly, mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA)
damage is closely interrelated with mitochondrial ROS production, and this
might also play a causal role for cellular senescence. Improvement of
mitochondrial function results in less telomeric damage and slower telomere
shortening, while telomere-dependent growth arrest is associated with
increased mitochondrial dysfunction. Moreover, telomerase, the enzyme
complex that is known to re-elongate shortened telomeres, also appears to
have functions independent of telomeres that protect against oxidative
stress. Together, these data suggest a self-amplifying cycle between
mitochondrial and telomeric DNA damage during cellular senescence.

One of my scientific mentors said to me once - If you sort out
osteoarthritis, Brian, you are one-third of the way to sorting aging.

So I have had a long-standing interest in the various theories of aging and
senescence since then. And an interest in ROS back to about 1975.

Or in the immortal words of The Who - Don't Try To Die Before We Get Old.

Brian

-----Original Message-----
From:
[mailto:] On Behalf Of Bob May
Sent: 16 May 2011 05:17
To:
Subject: Re: [DNA] Flying Fur

----- Original Message -----
From: "Kenneth Nordtvedt" <>
To: <>
Sent: Monday, May 16, 2011 1:15 PM
Subject: [DNA] Flying Fur

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/the-163400-test-that-tells-you-how
-long-youll-live-2284639.html

It will certainly be interesting to see the fur fly in the battle over this
product.

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