Drugs to slow the ageing process a step closer thanks to decoding of complex enzyme
Study of telomerase disease mutations could open the door for new anti-ageing and cancer treatments; also in health research news, antidepressant use linked to dementia, and why PMS may make women drink more alcohol
Scientists have celebrated the completion of a 20-year quest to map the complex enzyme telomerase, which is thought to avert ageing by repairing the tips of chromosomes in plants and animals, including humans.
Decoding the enzyme’s architecture could lead to drugs that slow or block the ageing process, along with new cancer treatments, they reported in the journal Nature.
Make it a smooth trip down memory lane
“It has been a long time coming,” lead investigator Kathleen Collins, a molecular biologist at the University of California, Berkeley, said.
“Our findings provide a structural framework for understanding human telomerase disease mutations, and represent an important step towards telomerase-related clinical therapeutics.”
Part protein and part RNA – genetic material that relays instructions for building proteins – telomerase acts on microscopic sheaths, known as telomeres, that cover the tips of the chromosomes found inside all cells.
In humans, each cell contains 23 pairs of chromosomes, including one pair of sex chromosomes – the “X” and “Y” – that differ between males and females.
