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An important discovery in telomere biology was made by a team of Australian scientists, with telomeres being segments of DNA at the ends of each human chromosome and, as we get older, the telomere length naturally decreases.
In the course of life, the shortening of telomeres controls aging It normally works as a critical barrier to stopping cancer.
However, some people are born with abnormally short telomeres and suffer from bone marrow failure, pulmonary fibrosis and high rates. of cancer. Telomere length is also an important marker of disease risk for diseases such as cancer, heart disease and diabetes.
Shortening of Telomeres
The shortening of telomeres makes the ends of chromosomes look like broken DNA. However, it remains a mystery why telomeres change from healthy to unhealthy with age.
This research identified the underlying cause. "We knew that telomeres regulate cell aging, but our new data explain the trigger that makes telomeres" bad for you. "Telomeres typically form a loop structure, where the end of the chromosome is hidden. the telomere loop unfolds, the end of the chromosome is exposed and the cell perceives it as a broken DNA.This is not the telomere length that counts, but the telomere structure.The telomere loop becomes more difficult to form as the telomeres become shorter, "said Dr. Tony Cesare.The research project was led by Dr. Cesare, head of the Genome Integrity Unit of the Institute Medical Research for Children (CKRI) Westmead, in collaboration with scientists from CMRI and Katharina Gaus of Sydney
telomeres can also change response to certain chemotherapeutic agents, which helps to kill cancer cells
Super Resolution Microscopy
The results of this study also proved the importance of technological advances in the field of research. Dr. Cesare first developed his theories on telomere loops in 2002 during his doctoral studies. However, the technology was not available at the time to easily visualize telomere loops with the help of microscopy.
However, the advent of super-resolution microscopy, which received the 2014 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, allowed us to see telomere loops. microscope. To complete this research, the team used high resolution microscopes at four Sydney research institutes and purchased the first Airyscan super-resolution microscope in Australia
"This technology allowed us to see 10 times more details than in the past We could go beyond the physical limits of light and see the structure of the telomere loop, "
Dr. Cesare said. To complete the project, the team has combined this groundbreaking technology with powerful genetic models that mimic cellular aging.
"We were only the second group in the world to see telomere loops with super-resolution microscopes and the first to determine their function. It took us four and a half years to complete the project. It was a huge effort that I did not think was feasible five years ago. We have shown that it is not just the length of the telomeres, but the telomere structure and the telomere health that we must understand. The next step is to ask, can we correlate human health with telomere health? Our work suggests that it is not only the measure of telomere length, "
Cesare added.
David Van Ly, Ronnie Ren Jie Low, Sonja Frolich, Tara K. Bartolec , Georgia R. Kafer, Hilda A. Pickett, Katharina Gaus and Anthony J. Cesare
Dynamics of Telomere Loops in Protecting the Ends of Chromosomes
Molecular Cell (2018) DOI: 10.1101 / 279877
Image: USGOV-NASA
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