The Contribution of Retroviral Transposable Elements to Aging

A growing body of academic work is focused on the activity of transposable elements in degenerative aging, and some of these projects may produce approaches to therapy based on suppressing this activity. Transposable elements are DNA sequences capable of copying themselves within the genome, thought to be the result of ancient viral infections, but which contribute to evolution by providing a ready path to mutational change. Transposable elements are suppressed in youth, but with age the regulation of gene expression becomes more ragged, and transposable elements exhibit ever greater activity. This is supposed by many researchers to contribute to degenerative aging in much the same way as other stochastic mutational damage, though proving this is ever a challenge, and also via provoking chronic innate immune responses to what might look like viral activity. There are several categories of transposable element, one of which, the retroviruses, is the topic of today's open access paper. The researchers assess the evidence for one particular pathway to be responsible for ensuring that retrovirus activation in older individuals produces an inflammatory response. As more researchers engage with the question of the role of transposable elements in aging, we'll see more research directed at potential target mechanisms that might be used to suppress transposable element activity in later life. Suppressing transposable element activity is the right way forward to determine just ...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs