(Press-News.org) SAN ANTONIO (Aug. 29, 2014) — Scientists at the Barshop Institute for Longevity and Aging Studies, part of the School of Medicine at the UT Health Science Center at San Antonio, have found another secret of longevity in the tissues of the longest-lived rodent, the naked mole rat.
They reported that a factor in the cells of naked mole rats protects and alters the activity of the proteasome, a garbage disposer for damaged and obsolete proteins.
The factor also protects proteasome function in human, mouse and yeast cells when challenged with various proteasome poisons, studies showed. These proteasomes usually rapidly stop functioning, leading to the accumulation of damaged proteins that further impair cell function, contributing to the vicious cycle that leads to cell death.
"I think this factor is part of an overall process or mechanism by which naked mole rats maintain their protein quality," study first author Karl Rodriguez, Ph.D., said.
Generally, as an organism ages, not only are there more damaged proteins in need of disposal, but the proteasome itself becomes damaged and less efficient in clearing out the damaged proteins.
As a result, protein quality declines and this contributes to the functional declines seen during aging. Enhancement of protein quality, meanwhile, leads to longer life in yeast, worms, fruit flies and naked mole rats, Dr. Rodriguez said.
Dr. Rodriguez, a San Antonio native who completed both his master's and doctoral degrees at the Health Science Center, is a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Rochelle Buffenstein, Ph.D., professor of physiology at the Barshop Institute. For this study, the Buffenstein lab also collaborated with Pawel Osmulski, Ph.D., assistant professor of molecular medicine; Susan Weintraub, Ph.D., professor of biochemistry; and Maria Gaczynska, Ph.D., associate professor of molecular medicine.
Naked mole rats, which burrow through underground tunnels in their native East Africa, are nearly hairless rodents. They live as long as 32 years. Naked mole rats maintain cancer-free good health and reproductive potential well into their third decade of life.
INFORMATION:
This finding is in the journal BBA: Molecular Basis of Disease.
Article:
Biochim Biophys Acta 2014 Jul 10. Epub 2014 Jul 10. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0925443914002166
Facebook
Twitter END
Factor in naked mole rat's cells enhances protein integrity
Barshop Institute finding is clue of how African rodent defies aging
2014-08-29
[Attachments] See images for this press release:
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Report advocates improved police training
2014-08-29
A new report released yesterday by the Mental Health Commission of Canada identifies ways to improve the mental health training and education that police personnel receive.
"People with mental illnesses is a prominent issue for Canada's police community, and today's report builds on the increasingly collaborative relationship between law enforcement and people with mental illnesses," says Queen's adjunct professor Dorothy Cotton, a forensic psychologist with an interest in the area of police psychology. "This is a gap-analysis tool that police academy and police services ...
Options for weight loss your primary care doctor might not know about
2014-08-29
NEW YORK – August 29, 2014 - Despite US Preventive Services Task Force recommendations for screening and treating obesity, there are many barriers, several of which may be ameliorated through technological approaches according to a new study by researchers at NYU Langone Medical Center published online August 21, 2014 in the Journal of General Internal Medicine (JGIM).
David Levine, MD, MA, a third year resident in the Department of Internal Medicine at NYU Langone, and colleagues found that compared to usual care, technology-assisted interventions specifically in the ...
Antidepressants show potential for postoperative pain
2014-08-29
After a systematic review of clinical trials based on administering antidepressants for acute and chronic postsurgical pain, researchers have concluded that more trials are needed to determine whether these drugs should be prescribed for postsurgical pain on a regular basis.
Dr. Ian Gilron, a professor and director of clinical pain research in the Department of Anesthesiology, and his team of seven researchers reviewed 15 trials to determine whether the use of antidepressants for pain relief post-surgery would work more effectively than painkillers such as opioids, local ...
Leading Ebola researcher at UTMB says there's an effective treatment for Ebola
2014-08-29
A leading U.S. Ebola researcher from the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston has gone on record stating that a blend of three monoclonal antibodies can completely protect monkeys against a lethal dose of Ebola virus up to 5 days after infection, at a time when the disease is severe.
Thomas Geisbert, professor of microbiology and immunology, has written an editorial for Nature discussing advances in Ebola treatment research. The filoviruses known as Ebola virus and Marburg virus are among the most deadly of pathogens, with fatality rates of up to 90 percent. ...
Assortativity signatures of transcription factor networks contribute to robustness
2014-08-29
Dartmouth researchers explored the type and number of connections in transcription factor networks (TFNs) to evaluate the role assortativity plays on robustness in a study published in PLOS Computational Biology in August. The study found that the assortativity signature contributes to a network's resilience against mutations.
"In simulations, it seems that varying the out-out assortativity of TFN models has a greater effect on robustness than varying any of the other three types of assortativity," said Dov A. Pechenick, PhD, lead author and former researcher at the ...
Revealing a novel mode of action for an osteoporosis drug
2014-08-29
Raloxifene is a U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved treatment for decreasing fracture risk in osteoporosis. While raloxifene is as effective at reducing fracture risk as other current treatments, this works only partially by suppressing bone loss. With the use of wide- and small-angle x-ray scattering (WAXS and SAXS, respectively), researchers carried out experiments at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE's) Advanced Photon Source (APS) at Argonne National Laboratory that revealed an additional mechanism underlying raloxifene action, providing an explanation ...
Study reveals how Ebola blocks immune system
2014-08-29
Researchers at the Washington University School of Medicine have identified one way the Ebola virus dodges the body's antiviral defenses, providing important insight that could lead to new therapies, in research results published in the journal Cell Host & Microbe.
In work performed at Beamline 19ID at Argonne National Laboratory's Advanced Photon Source, the researchers developed a detailed map of how a non-pathogenic Ebola protein, VP24, binds to a host protein that takes signaling molecules in and out of the cell nucleus.
Their map revealed that the viral protein ...
Argonne scientists pioneer strategy for creating new materials
2014-08-29
Making something new is never easy. Scientists constantly theorize about new materials, but when the material is manufactured it doesn't always work as expected. To create a new strategy for designing materials, scientists at the Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory combined two different approaches at two different facilities to synthesize new materials.
This new strategy gives faster feedback on what growth schemes are best, thus shortening the timeframe to manufacture a new, stable material for energy transport and conversion applications.
A recent ...
Aging Africa
2014-08-29
Boulder, Colorado, USA – In the September issue of GSA Today, Paul Bierman of the University of Vermont–Burlington and colleagues present a cosmogenic view of erosion, relief generation, and the age of faulting in southernmost Africa. By measuring beryllium-10 (10Be) in river sediment samples, they show that south-central South Africa is eroding at the slow rate of about five meters per million years, consistent with rates in other non-tectonically active regions.
By measuring 10Be and aluminum-26 (26Al) in exposed quartzites, Bierman and colleagues find that undeformed ...
Preventing cancer from forming 'tentacles' stops dangerous spread
2014-08-29
EDMONTON, AB – A new study from the research group of Dr. John Lewis at the University of Alberta (Edmonton, AB) and the Lawson Health Research Institute (London, ON) has confirmed that "invadopodia" play a key role in the spread of cancer. The study, published in Cell Reports, shows preventing these tentacle-like structures from forming can stop the spread of cancer entirely.
Roughly 2 in 5 Canadians will develop cancer in their lifetime, and one in four of them will die of the disease. In 2014, it's estimated that nine Canadians will die of cancer every hour. Thanks ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
Fig trees convert atmospheric CO2 to stone
Intra-arterial tenecteplase for acute stroke after successful endovascular therapy
Study reveals beneficial microbes that can sustain yields in unfertilized fields
Robotic probe quickly measures key properties of new materials
Climate change cuts milk production, even when farmers cool their cows
Frozen, but not sealed: Arctic Ocean remained open to life during ice ages
Some like it cold: Cryorhodopsins
Demystifying gut bacteria with AI
Human wellbeing on a finite planet towards 2100: new study shows humanity at a crossroads
Unlocking the hidden biodiversity of Europe’s villages
Planned hydrogen refuelling stations may lead to millions of euros in yearly losses
Planned C-sections increase the risk of certain childhood cancers
Adults who have survived childhood cancer are at increased risk of severe COVID-19
Drones reveal extreme coral mortality after bleaching
New genetic finding uncovers hidden cause of arsenic resistance in acute promyelocytic leukemia
Native habitats hold the key to the much-loved smashed avocado’s future
Using lightning to make ammonia out of thin air
Machine learning potential-driven insights into pH-dependent CO₂ reduction
Physician associates provide safe care for diagnosed patients when directly supervised by a doctor
How game-play with robots can bring out their human side
Asthma: patient expectations influence the course of the disease
UNM physician tests drug that causes nerve tissue to emit light, enabling faster, safer surgery
New study identifies EMP1 as a key driver of pancreatic cancer progression and poor prognosis
XPR1 identified as a key regulator of ovarian cancer growth through autophagy and immune evasion
Flexible, eco-friendly electronic plastic for wearable tech, sensors
Can the Large Hadron Collider snap string theory?
Stuckeman professor’s new book explores ‘socially sustainable’ architecture
Synthetic DNA nanoparticles for gene therapy
New model to find treatments for an aggressive blood cancer
Special issue of Journal of Intensive Medicine analyzes non-invasive respiratory support
[Press-News.org] Factor in naked mole rat's cells enhances protein integrityBarshop Institute finding is clue of how African rodent defies aging