London: In a medical breakthrough that would
help develop drugs to slow the ageing process, scientists have
unlocked the secrets of a gene which helps fight disease and
stop ageing.
The discovery is being hailed as a major "piece of the
puzzle" in understanding how we get older, our lifespan and
resistance to disease.
"I think there is definite potential, within our lifetime,
that we will be able to develop drugs to slow the ageing
process based on this gene. Although stopping the ageing
process may not happen, slowing it down is quite realistic,"
said lead researcher Robin May from University of Birmingham.
May`s team found that higher levels of the gene -- DAF-16
-- are directly linked with longer life.
It also boosts the body`s ability to fight "stress
resistance" like poisoning or major temperature changes as
well as giving better immunity against infections, the Daily
Express reported.
Experts hope that a understanding of how genes affect the
inevitable process of cell death would one day help them
develop new drugs to slow the ageing process.
In his report in the the journal PLoS ONE, May said: "We
wanted to find out how normal ageing is being governed by
genes and what effect these genes have on other traits, such
as immunity.
"To do that, we looked at a gene that we already knew to
be involved in the ageing process, called DAF-16, to see how
it may determine the different rates of ageing in different
species."
The team study the gene in laboratory worms and found
that it was strongly involved in determining ageing and
average lifespan.
They also found that the worm having more gene, had a
better chance of living longer.
Exposing the worms to a short burst of higher temperature
-- a quick bit of stress -- increased the activity of this
gene.
"It leads to the idea of what doesn`t kill you, does you
good. If we have some moderate level of stress or challenge,
that might be sufficient for us to live longer," the
researchers said and added: humans have an equivalent gene to
DAF-16 called FOXO.
PTI