tailieunhanh - Báo cáo y học: "Antagonizing Methuselah to extend life span"

Tuyển tập các báo cáo nghiên cứu về y học được đăng trên tạp chí y học Critical Care giúp cho các bạn có thêm kiến thức về ngành y học đề tài: Antagonizing Methuselah to extend life span. | Minireview Antagonizing Methuselah to extend life span Nazif Alic and Linda Partridge Address UCL Centre for Research on Ageing Department of Biology Darwin Building University College London Gower St London WC1E 6BT UK. Correspondence Linda Partridge. Email Published 31 August 2007 Genome Biology 2007 8 222 doi gb-2007-8-8-222 The electronic version of this article is the complete one and can be found online at http 2007 8 8 222 2007 BioMed Central Ltd Abstract A recent report describes the identification through the use of in vitro selection of a peptide that antagonizes Methuselah signaling in Drosophila in vitro and extends fly life span in vivo. Like their biblical namesake methuselah1 mth1 mutant Drosophila melanogaster significantly outlive their wildtype peers. Aging observed on a population level as a timedependent increase in the probability of death is delayed in homozygous mth1 mth1 flies resulting in an approximately 35 increase in average and maximum life span of males at 29 C the basis on which mth was identified and named 1 . Almost a decade after the first report of the mth1 mutant the function of the mth gene product and the mechanism by which it extends life span are still under intensive investigation with the most recent study by Ja and co-workers 2 reporting an antagonist of mth function that extends life span. The longevity phenotype of mth1 has been observed to depend on the sex of the flies the temperature at which the experiment is conducted 3 food source and mating status 4 and is greatest in males at 29 C on a highly nutritious medium. Life-span extension is accompanied by a reduction in reproductive output sensitivity to cold 3 and increased resistance to a superoxide-generating drug paraquat heat stress or starvation 1 4 . A clue to the cellular role of mth comes from observations that mth controls synaptic efficacy at neuromuscular junctions 5 . Furthermore mth plays an essential role in