0000000000505516
AUTHOR
Juana M. Flores
G6PD Overexpression Protects Mice Against Associated Oxidative Stress and Delays the Occurrence of Frailty
To assess the impact of lifelong overexpression of G6PD on reactive oxygen species (ROS)-derived damage and the prevention of frailty, we measured the levels of macromolecular oxidative damage in young and old mice and the we tested the neuromuscular fitness and the grip strength in old mice. Old G6PD-Tg male and female mice showed diminished accumulation of DNA oxidation (measured as 8-hydroxyguanosine or 8-OHdG) in liver and brain. Old females also showed reduced lipid oxidation (measured as malondialdehyde or MDA) in the liver. Old G6PD-Tg males, but not females, presented a small but significant increase in brain protein carbonylation. In accordance with these findings, liver from 2-yea…
Anti-aging activity of the Ink4/Arf locus.
The proteins encoded by the Ink4/Arf locus, p16Ink4a, p19Arf and p15Ink4b are major tumour suppressors that oppose aberrant mitogenic signals. The expression levels of the locus are progressively increased during aging and genome-wide association studies have linked the locus to a number of aging-associated diseases and frailty in humans. However, direct measurement of the global impact of the Ink4/Arf locus on organismal aging and longevity was lacking. In this work, we have examined the fertility, cancer susceptibility, aging and longevity of mice genetically modified to carry one (Ink4/Arf-tg) or two (Ink4/Arf-tg/tg) intact additional copies of the locus. First, increased gene dosage of …
Delayed ageing through damage protection by the Arf/p53 pathway.
The tumour-suppressor pathway formed by the alternative reading frame protein of the Cdkn2a locus (Arf) and by p53 (also called Trp53) plays a central part in the detection and elimination of cellular damage, and this constitutes the basis of its potent cancer protection activity. Similar to cancer, ageing also results from the accumulation of damage and, therefore, we have reasoned that Arf/p53 could have anti-ageing activity by alleviating the load of age-associated damage. Here we show that genetically manipulated mice with increased, but otherwise normally regulated, levels of Arf and p53 present strong cancer resistance and have decreased levels of ageing-associated damage. These obser…
Telomerase Reverse Transcriptase Delays Aging in Cancer-Resistant Mice
Summary Telomerase confers limitless proliferative potential to most human cells through its ability to elongate telomeres, the natural ends of chromosomes, which otherwise would undergo progressive attrition and eventually compromise cell viability. However, the role of telomerase in organismal aging has remained unaddressed, in part because of the cancer-promoting activity of telomerase. To circumvent this problem, we have constitutively expressed telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT), one of the components of telomerase, in mice engineered to be cancer resistant by means of enhanced expression of the tumor suppressors p53, p16, and p19ARF. In this context, TERT overexpression improves …
G6PD protects from oxidative damage and improves healthspan in mice
S.N.-P. and P.J.F.-M. have been funded by the Spanish Association Against Cancer(aecc). Work in the laboratory of M.S. is funded by the CNIO and by grants from the Spanish Ministry of Economy co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund(SAF project), the European Research Council (ERC Advanced Grant), the Regional Government of Madrid co-funded by the European Social Fund (ReCaRe project), the European Union (RISK-IR project), the Botin Foundation and Banco Santander(Santander Universities Global Division), the Ramon Areces Foundation, and the AXA Foundation. Work in the laboratory of J.V. was supported by grants SAF2013-44663-R,from the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science (MEC…
Growth Arrest Specific 1 (Gas1) Gene Overexpression in Liver Reduces the In Vivo Progression of Murine Hepatocellular Carcinoma and Partially Restores Gene Expression Levels.
The prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma patients is usually poor, the size of tumors being a limiting factor for surgical treatments. Present results suggest that the overexpression of Gas1 (growth arrest specific 1) gene reduces the size, proliferating activity and malignancy of liver tumors. Mice developing diethylnitrosamine-induced hepatocellular carcinoma were subjected to hydrodynamic gene delivery to overexpress Gas1 in liver. This treatment significantly (p < 0.05) reduced the number of large tumors, while the difference in the total number of lesions was not significant. Moreover, the number of carcinoma foci in the liver and the number of lung metastases were reduced. These resu…