Heterocephalus glaber, also known as the naked mole rat
Are they ugly? There are those who say yes. But at least they have lived healthily for almost four decades. Now, scientists have discovered exactly how naked mole rats repair their DNA – which could be used to help humans do the same.
In a study last week in Scienceresearchers from Tongji University in Shanghai, discovered why these curious little rodents (Heterocephalus glaber) have such an extraordinary life expectancy.
The secret is that changes in four amino acid residues provide naked mole rats with a kind of genetic toolbox that allows them to carry out repairs in all your organs and prevent cell death (senescence).
As , scientists had already discovered that the DNA sensor cyclic guanosine monophosphate–adenosine monophosphate synthetase (cGAS) was responsible for boosting this repair throughout the organism, patching double breaks in DNA chains to stabilize the genome. However, how this happened remained a mystery until now.
Using comparative molecular biology with human cGAS – which actually inhibits DNA repair – scientists discovered that the naked mole rat enzyme possesses four fundamental changes that facilitate the important work that prolongs their life and keeps them healthy and disease-free for a remarkably long period.
When a cGAS enzyme of the rodent was inserted into human and mouse cells in the laboratory, the researchers observed that this significantly increased the cells’ ability to repair DNA and therefore reduced the molecular signs of aging.
When they genetically modified fruit flies to produce the naked mole rat’s cGAS, the insects lived about 10 days longer than expected. While this may not seem like much, these flies only live for about 40 days, so it represents a significant extension of their life expectancy.
When live rats were equipped with the naked mole rat cGAS, the aged rodents were shown to be less fragile, had less gray hair and healthier organs longer than animals in a control group.
“This change gives the naked mole rat cGAS a greater ability to stabilize the genome, counteract cellular senescence and organ aging, and promote prolonged life and health,” noted the researchers, cited by New Atlas.
Given the biological similarities between humans and naked mole rats, it is believed that this could translate into a prolonging our own longevity and health. However, they admit that it is still a distant reality.
