Okay, so demethylation of DNA is associated with aging and cancer. But what causes demethylation of DNA? Why do we lose methyl groups?…those are the answers which could lead to halting the aging process. I also wonder if long-living plants have slower demethylation and if so how they maintain their methylation.
Then the philosophical questions: would you want to live that long? What implications would it have on our demographics, work force, resource management and availability, and the economy?
/via +Jack Stanley
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We stand on the verge of a revolution in medicine: understanding, treating, and ultimately preventing the causes of degenerative aging. But medical revolutions only happen if we all stand up in suppor…
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A friend who is doing oncogenic research claims that one thing that happens is acylation rather than methylation, that leads to damage, aging, and general screwups in transcription.
+Akinola Emmanuel Good point – in particular when cancer is possibly associated to genetic mutations in redundant codons, there may very well be a link between the specific genes present.
Either way, the finding suggests a linkage with aesthetic aging, not necessarily a linkage with lifespan. If anything, more immediate follow-up research may make growing old more pleasant.
Well an overall change in demethylation doesn't say anything about methylation around genes with function specific to that cell. I always used to imagine that methylation and not demethylation was associated with aging. I wonder if those researchers looked at methylation activity around cell specific genes between their young and old samples.