Worms Help Researchers with the Mystery of Aging in Humans

From the University of Colorado at Boulder comes research that has given them some insight into one day being able to limit or even reverse genetic mutations that cause many inherited diseases and the answer came from tiny microscopic worms that are used for scientific research.

They had known that the worms are living longer lives in spite of having cellular defects. When the researchers manipulated the metabolic state of the lab worms, called C. elegans, who had been genetically engineered, they found a window of high efficiency cellular processing that gave the worms the ability to slow down the rate at which they were aging.

The researchers hope that one day their discovery might lead to the creation of gene therapies that would reverse or lessen the effects of the largest group of genetic disease in humans called mitochondrial diseases. These are the diseases that affect the mitochondria, which is the power source in the cells, such as Huntington's, Parkinson's and Alzheimer's.

For close to ten years, there have been experiments done with RNA interface, RNAi, technology for the purpose of reducing the gene expression for the purpose of getting a better understanding on human disease. This technique is a very effective way to silence specific DNA in living organisms.

The team used the RNAi method to produce worms that had different levels of mitochondrial dysfunction. Their hope was that they would be able to solve a mystery that had been puzzling researchers for years. The wanted to see why worms that are called Mit mutants live longer in spite of having cellular defects that would have killed off similar human cells.

What they found was a window in time where life has the ability ro preserve itself better than it can when it is without any cellular defects. It is a metabolic state in which the cells are thought to being the best they can be for long life as well as good health.