longer living through chemistry

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From: eugene.leitl@lrz.uni-muenchen.de
Date: Sun Sep 24 2000 - 09:40:45 PDT


From: "Frank Prengel" <fprengel@myokay.net>
Subject: [forum] =?iso-8859-1?Q?Warum_man_durch_Hungern_l=E4nger_lebt_=5BTP=5D?=
CR:

 http://www.heise.de/tp/deutsch/inhalt/lis/8782/1.html

"Eat Less, Live Longer
Severely restricting a rat's daily intake of calories helps prolong its life.
This regimen that works in primates and even yeast. Now Lin et al. (p. 2126; see
the Perspective by Campisi) have recreated this so-called caloric restriction in
yeast and identified some of the genes required for its effects on longevity.
These include the chromatin-silencing gene SIR2 and a gene for an enzyme in the
synthesis pathway of the metabolic intermediate NAD (the oxidized form of
nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide). Because Sir2p is allosterically regulated by
NAD, a decreased metabolic rate included by caloric restriction could cause
altered NAD levels and thus maintain the ability of Sir2p to silence the
expression of deleterious genes (in this case, the expression of ribosomal DNA
that can be toxic to yeast cells). This connection between silencing and
prolonged life induced by caloric restriction suggests that proteins that
silence gene expression may prove to be useful targets for drugs that modulate
life-span. " (Science)


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