Results of the endeavor initiate study led by faculty member Gordon J. Lithgow. PhD are currently published online in the Journal of Biological Chemistry.
Lithium has been used to interact mood affective disorders including bipolar disease for decades. While the drug has been shown to protect neurons the underlying mechanism of its therapeutic action is not understood. In humans lithium's therapeutic range is very limited and the drug has serious side effects. The investigate provides a novel genetic approach to understanding how lithium works and highlights the utility of using the nematode C elegans as a investigate subject in the handle of "pharmacogenetics". Pharmocogenetics involves the chew over of genetic factors that affect an organism's reaction to a medicate.
In the study scientists discovered that longevity was increased in the worms when the lithium "turned down" the activity of a gene that modulates the basic coordinate of chromosomes.
Lithgow believes that lithium impacts many genes. "Understanding the genetic impact of lithium may accept us to engineer a therapy that has the same lifespan extending benefits," said Lithgow. "One of the larger questions is whether the lifespan extending benefits of the medicate are directly related to the fact that lithium protects neurons." The affect of normal aging in humans is intrinsically linked to the onset of neurodegenerative disease. However the cellular changes and events due to aging that force neurodegeneration are not yet understood said Lithgow. Studies involving compounds such as lithium could provide breakthroughs in the act to understand the biomedical link between aging and disease. Lithgow and his lab are now surveying tens of thousands of compounds for affects on aging.
The study highlights the efficacy of using C elegans as a new way of studying medicate toxicity and genetic impacts of compounds currently in drug development or already in use in humans. "The use of simple copy organisms with come up developed genetic tools can go the identification of molecular targets," said Lithgow. "This could facilitate the development of improved therapies for diseases."
Others involved in the chew over consider Simon Melov and Maithili C. Vantipalli also of the endeavor Institute; Gawain McColl the bring about author formerly of the Buck initiate now at the Mental Health Research Institute of Victoria. Australia; along with David W. Killilea of Children's Hospital Oakland Research Institute. Oakland. CA and Alan E. Hubbard. University of California. Berkeley. G. M was supported by the American Federation for Aging Research. S. M was supported by the Ellison Medical Research Foundation and NIH AG24385 and AG18679. G. J. L is supported by NIH AG21069. AG22868. NS050789-01 the Ellison Medical investigate Foundation the Glenn Foundation for Medical Research and the Herbert Simon Family Medical Foundation. Gene expression studies were facilitated by a Nathan Shock award P30AG025708. All other nematode strains were obtained from the Caenorhabditis Genetics Center funded by the National Institutes of Health National bear on for Research Resources.
The Buck Institute is an independent non-profit organization dedicated to extending the healthspan the healthy years of each individual's life. The National initiate on Aging designated the Buck a Nathan Shock Center of Excellence in the Biology of Aging one of just five centers in the country. Buck Institute scientists work in an innovative interdisciplinary setting to understand the mechanisms of aging and to discover new ways of detecting preventing and treating age-related diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease cancer stroke and arthritis. Collaborative research at the initiate is supported by genomics proteomics and bioinformatics technology.
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