Arguing that Progeria Mechanisms are Significant Enough in Normal Aging to Be Worth Addressing

Today I'll point out a very long post that argues we should pay more attention to the mechanisms of Hutchinson-Gilford progeria syndrome (HGPS, or simply progeria) in normal aging. Progeria is one of a small number of rare conditions in which patients have the appearance of accelerated aging. It isn't really accelerated aging, but it is at root a form of biological breakage that leads to greatly increased rates of cellular damage and dysfunction. This produces medical conditions that overlap with those of normal aging since they, also, are the consequence of high levels of cellular damage and dysfunction. Both aging and progeria result in cardiovascular disease and kidney failure, for example, but the root causes are very different. In the case of progeria damage results from a mutation in the lamin A gene, and as a consequence an encoded protein that is vital to cellular function has abnormal behavior. Among other issues observed in progeroid tissues, cell nuclei are misshapen and the ability for cells to replicate is consequently limited. The cause of progeria was discovered not so long after the turn of the century, and researchers have since then made some inroads towards a treatment. The latest and most promising - and perhaps also the most surprising - is the use of methylene blue, one of the oldest of modern medical compounds. Along the way, evidence has accumulated for the basic mechanism of progeria, damaged lamin A, to be present to a small degree in normally aged ...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs