Nerve cells are not able to regenerate their own DNA, so they must constantly “repair” the damage that occurs in their genome.
A new study has found that this self-healing process is not random, but also to maintain and protect genetic factors that play an important role in the performance of neuronal function.
The findings, published in the journal Science on April 2, 2021, provide new insight into the genetic makeup involved in aging and neurodegeneration, and focus on the development of new therapies to support patients with Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and age-related dementia.
This is the first study to show which parts neurons prioritize “repair,” in which he expressed optimism about how to care for them, said Professor and Chairman Salk Rusty Pledge and author of the article. DNA self-healing as a new therapeutic approach in medicine.
Unlike the rest of the cells in the body, nerve cells do not renew themselves over time, so they become one of the oldest and longest lasting cells in the human body. Because they cannot renew themselves, they often have to “fix” the damage in their DNA to maintain function throughout a person’s life. As these cells age, their ability to “repair” decreases, which is why older people are more likely to develop neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease than younger people.
To clarify how neurons maintain the “health” of the genome, researchers have developed a new technique called Repair-seq. The team developed neurons from stem cells and cultured them with synthetic nucleosides – molecules that act as the building blocks of DNA. These artificial nucleosides were found by DNA sequencing imaging, suggesting that the neurons that use them restore the function of aging DNA.
Author Dylan Reid said: “The images we observed in the post-recovery areas were extremely sharp and clear, and we also detected the presence of proteins in the affected areas, these proteins were initially involved in neurodegenerative diseases. and aging related to age. “
About 65,000 “hot spots” have been discovered, representing about 2% of the neuron’s genome. Using proteomics, the researchers found out which proteins were present. “It’s really a new biological process that is changing the way neurons in the nervous system are understood to find ways to develop therapies to treat age-related illnesses,” Reid said.
