For years many scientists around the world have been trying to hack the human body trying to find out why we age and if it is possible to slow down if not reverse this process.
Dr. Thomas Stoeger of Northwestern University in Illinois has recently published an extremely interesting study on the longevity of human beings and above all on what it depends.
The trick not to age
According to the scientist, shorter genes are associated with a shorter life span, while long genes are linked with better health and longevity.
“I find it very elegant that a single, relatively concise principle appears to explain nearly all of the changes in gene activity that occur in animals as they age,” he said in a statement.
How does it work?
The length of a gene is based on the number of nucleotides in it. Each string of nucleotides translates into an amino acid, forming a protein. Thus a very long gene produces a large protein and a short gene produces a small protein. A cell needs to have a balanced number of small and large proteins to achieve homeostasis, and problems occur when this balance gets out of control.
Luis Amaral of Northwestern, senior author of the study, gave an example when explaining why we need to control the diversity of genes: ‘Fever can occur for many, many reasons. It could be caused by an infection, which requires antibiotics to be treated, or caused by appendicitis, requiring surgery.
“Here, it’s the same thing. The problem is the imbalance of gene activity. If you can help correct the imbalance, then you can deal with the downstream consequences.”
This means that not just a small subset of genes contribute to aging. Aging, on the other hand, is characterized by system-level changes, so trying to control the system could be the key to success in this area.