Research could lead to interventions to slow aging
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University a five-year, $11.2 million grant to study the impact of damage to DNA on aging and disease. Research funded by this grant, and conducted by a consortium of scientists, could reveal the role of genome maintenance systems in delaying aging and will begin to explore novel interventions to maintain health in old age.
Led by Jan Vijg, Ph.D., chairman of genetics at Einstein, the research project will build on the consortium's previous, internationally recognized work involving mice that undergo accelerated aging. This research has shown that interfering with the cellular processes responsible for DNA repair leads to what appears to be premature aging in these animals. These results indicate that accumulating DNA errors may underpin the aging process.
The investigators in the consortium now plan to see if treatments based on these results can extend life spans of mice bred to have short lives. "We can try to use interventions that are based on alleviating DNA damage," Dr. Vijg says. "One approach, for example, could be the use of antioxidants, which neutralize free radicals, the chemicals that contribute to DNA damage."
Altogether, the research project involves four main areas of study: