New methods to combat cell damage that accumulates with age

Researchers from UCLA and Caltech have made discoveries that might help slow and potentially reverse the process of aging in cells.They generated new methods that allow identification of factors that selectively remove damaged mitochondrial DNA, which will affect the process of aging at the cellular level. Aging is, in part, due to changes in mitochondria, the energy-providing powerhouses of the cell.Mitochondria contain their own DNA, and the accumulation of mutations of mitochondrial DNA throughout a lifetime contributes to aging.There are two strategies for combating age-related diseases. One way is to fight the individual disease. The other aims to delay the aging process to prevent or delay the onset of age-related diseases in general.Mitochondria provide most of the energy for cellular operations. Cumulative damage to mitochondrial DNA contributes to age-related disorders such as Parkinson ’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, heart disease, and muscle wasting and frailty. One key goal to delay or reverse aging is to reduce the ratio of damaged to normal mitochondrial DNA. Inherited defects in mitochondrial DNA also cause a number of devastating childhood diseases, including strokes an d muscle diseases.“We showed that we could selectively cleanse the damaged mitochondrial DNA, effectively rejuvenating them and improving mitochondrial quality,” said Ming Guo, P. Gene& Elaine Smith  Chair in Alzheimer’s Disease Research, and professor of neurology& pharmac...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news