Longevity Gene Identified

Here is something interesting about longevity. Scientists are finding and identifying more genes quite regularly and I wonder what else they may find. The following is from this link address.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/h...entists-could-be-key-to-longer-lifespans.html

Telegraph
08 Feb 2010
Ageing gene found by scientists could be key to longer lifespans
By Richard Alleyne

A longevity gene has been identified for the first time in a breakthrough that could eventually help people live longer, a new study suggests.

The researchers have located a gene which determines whether or not a person will biologically age quickly or slowly.

They think that by testing for the gene when some one is young could identify whether they have to alter their lifestyle accordingly.

In the longer term it may be possible to manipulate the gene so that life spans can be extended.

"This gives us for the first time a better understanding of biological ageing, " said Professor Nilesh Samani at the University of Leicester.

"It is the first step to understanding why people age. Once we have a full understanding we should be able to manipulate it in a manner to influence how someone ages."

Cells in the body are constantly replacing themselves before they die. But each replication is not perfect and the faults that are passed down cause the body to age.

One form of damage is caused to the telomeres – the end parts of chromosomes which act like the plastic tips of shoelaces and stop them from fraying.

The problem is that they shorten each time they replicate and eventually are so short that replication becomes impossible and the cell dies forever.

The scientists have discovered that a variant of the TERC gene determines not only how long the telomeres are when someone is born but also how quickly they shorten.

Prof Samani, who reported his findings in the Journal Nature Genetics, discovered the variant by comparing the genetic make-up and biological age of more than 10,000 people.

He said: "In this study what we found was that those individuals carrying a particular genetic variant had shorter telomeres i.e. looked biologically older.

"Given the association of shorter telomeres with age-associated diseases, the finding raises the question whether individuals carrying the variant are at greater risk of developing such diseases."

Professor Tim Spector from King's College London, who co-led this project, said: "What our study suggests is that some people are genetically programmed to age at a faster rate.

"The effect was quite considerable in those with the variant, equivalent to between 3-4 years of 'biological ageing" as measured by telomere length loss.

"Alternatively genetically susceptible people may age even faster when exposed to proven 'bad' environments for telomeres like smoking, obesity or lack of exercise – and end up several years biologically older or succumbing to more age-related diseases."
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I saw this in the Guardian; really interesting work.

Could I just mention about our Long Lived Cavaliers ,I think that many of you will now know by this time how over the years I have collected the ages of Long Lived Cavaliers.

What is so noticeable ,is that so often many of those Cavaliers had a good Number of Long Lived Ancestors in their Pedigree Background.

In-fact in a number of cases ,a Cavalier who developed an Early Heart Murmur ,lived onto a Normal Old Age, those Cavaliers also had a number of Long Lived Ancestors in their pedigree Back-Ground.

Was this the Reason?

I then contacted Dr Kvart ,a Researcher into the Heart Problem in our Cavaliers explaining what I had found, and he replied back saying, that he thought that this was as good a way as any for Cavalier Breeders to tackle the Cavalier Heart Trouble.

Have as many Long Lived Cavaliers in the Cavaliers Back-Ground as Possible.

Yes ,this all could be down to whatever Longevity Gene a Cavalier has, there are even Cavaliers who have COI of over 30% ,lived to 15 ,and had Off-Springs who lived to that age as well.

This would be about 8-10 years ago, when I contacted Dr Kvart , I expect the same reasoning will still apply, but to-day the most important advice is from the Heart Researchers for the MVD Problem in Cavaliers,is to delay the Early Onset of their MVD Problem, not to Breed from a Cavalier before 2.5 years .

I don't think any-body will know better than I do ,that Cavaliers can live onto a normal old age ,but that does not Blind me to the Fact that the Cavaliers do have a very Serious Heart Condition Afllicting them.

It's no use Kidding Our-selves Other-Wise.

Those who don't or won't face up to this Fact ,are doing our Cavaliers a Grave Disservice.

Bet(Hargreaves)

Karlin said:

I saw this in the Guardian; really interesting work.

Click to expand...

Yes really interesting work and I even noted the following.

The scientists have discovered that a variant of the TERC gene determines not only how long the telomeres are when someone is born but also how quickly they shorten.

"Given the association of shorter telomeres with age-associated diseases, the finding raises the question whether individuals carrying the variant are at greater risk of developing such diseases."

Interestingly I found some information that the discoveries might play key roles in developing new therapeutics for cancer, ageing or hereditary diseases. When chromosomes shorten too much (and the telomeres shorten beyond a point), the cell stops dividing and goes into senescence. Normal cells don’t divide too much, so don’t need too much telomerase activity. Yet cancer cells divide incessantly. But they still preserve their telomeres, and don’t go into senescence. It has now been observed that cancer cells have high telomerase activity, and people now believe cancer can be treated by removing telomerases from cancer cells (and thus forcing the cells to go into senescence). There is a ton of work being done now to develop therapeutics against cancer targeting telomerases.

I think it would be interesting to hear of any future discoveries in regards to the TERC gene and telomeres and in regards to various hereditary diseases.

Edited in, by the way this is 2009 Nobel Prize stuff.
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/2009/press.html
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