{"id":69,"date":"2016-09-18T17:36:04","date_gmt":"2016-09-18T22:36:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eportfolios.isucomm.iastate.edu\/karndt\/?p=69"},"modified":"2016-09-30T09:26:21","modified_gmt":"2016-09-30T14:26:21","slug":"telomeres-the-capstones-of-our-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eportfolios.isucomm.iastate.edu\/karndt\/2016\/09\/18\/telomeres-the-capstones-of-our-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Telomeres: The Capstones of Our Life"},"content":{"rendered":"

Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), as we all know, is the over arching storage system of our cells that allow us to live. \u00a0Without this storage system, or library of genes and genetic information we would be nothing; I wouldn’t be writing this at my home right know and you wouldn’t have the ability to be reading this. \u00a0Because this fundamental structure is so vital to life there has to be some sort of protection mechanism, right? \u00a0Well, there are many, but today I am talking only about one.<\/p>\n

Telomeres are a simple idea in that they are the end caps of our chromosomes, but they are beautifully intricate in their importance and the mechanisms they play part in. \u00a0 A common analogy to telomeres is the shoelace example. \u00a0Think of chromosomes as the lace part and telomeres as the plastic tips (Fun Fact: also called an\u00a0aglet<\/a>) that keep the lace from fraying. \u00a0 Telomeres do exactly that, they keep the important DNA in the chromosome from fraying and falling apart.<\/p>\n

The structure of these end caps are quite simple in that it’s only a six base pair<\/a> (A,T,C,G) sequence that repeats over and over again. This sequence varies based on the organism (the human sequence is TTAGGG) but the sequence typically repeats about 3,000 times and can extend up to 15,000 base pairs1<\/sup><\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Illustration<\/p>\n

These telomeres are on every one of our 46 chromosomes and each round of cell replication shortens the telomeres by 25-200 bases1<\/sup><\/a>. \u00a0Compared to chromosoms without telomeres, important DNA would be lost at that same rate. Each cell goes through about 50-70 replications before it goes through senescence (cell aging) and eventually apoptosis (programmed cell death). \u00a0This means that over the life of one cell you would lose 1,250-14,000 bases off your chromosomes. \u00a0Imagine this happening for every cell in your body (the average person has ~30 trillion cells). \u00a0That is a massive number that I’ll let you calculate. \u00a0Nonetheless we would all die extremely quickly without telomeres solely due to lack of functional DNA.<\/p>\n

\"Telomere<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.tasciences.com\/what-is-a-telomere\/<\/p>\n

Luckily it isn’t considered “game over” when telomeres deplete. \u00a0There is an enzyme responsible for adding the repeats back onto the ends of chromosomes, and this little hero is called Telomerase. Telomerase is highly active in “germline” cells (eggs, sperm and stem cells) which is what allows new born children to have such high amounts of telomeres. \u00a0Though, in somatic cells (body cells like skin, muscle, liver), telomerase activity is very low which is where problems start to occur with aging. \u00a0The decrease in telomere length could also lead to oncogenic transformation<\/a>, or cancer formation from somatic cells. \u00a0These cancer lines can become immortalized through the over expression of telomerase to extreme levels, more than that of germline cells.<\/p>\n

The depletion of telomeres can be expedited by some daily habits. \u00a0Specifically, smoking is, as we all know, is a contributor to cancer. \u00a0One of the ways it affects cancer is through telomere shortening. Obesity has also been shown to increase telomere degradation, or rather intake of polyunsaturated fatty acids (like linoleic acid<\/a>). \u00a0A negative correlation can be made between telomere length and waist circumference.<\/p>\n

There are some ways to prevent telomere degradation. \u00a0Exercise has also been shown to decrease DNA damage and limit telomere degradation. \u00a0Overall limiting your caloric intake has a positive effect on aging, almost a 66% increase in lifespan has been seen. \u00a0This has to do with decreasing the oxidative \u00a0stress you put on your body. \u00a0 There is a lot of news about antioxidants being good for your health well it also is shown to increase lifespan by again decreasing oxidative stress on your body and DNA. \u00a0The last option would be gene therapy.<\/p>\n

A company from Seattle, called BioViva<\/a> carried out the first anti-aging gene therapy on their own CEO, Elizabeth Parrish. \u00a0The researchers reported a lengthening of her leukocyte (white blood cells) telomeres from 6.71 kilobases to 7.33 kilobases. \u00a0This is a major breakthrough in the field of anti-aging because in this test there might have been 20 years of life added to Parrish’s DNA!!!<\/p>\n

\"\u201cIt<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.inverse.com\/article\/14614-gene-therapy-makes-bioviva-ceo-elizabeth-parrish-younger-blunter-and-resolute<\/p>\n

So we are living in a time where the first steps of anti-aging is starting to take hold, and people like Elizabeth Parrish and her company are paving the way for future companies. \u00a0I hope to one day be among them in this fascinating field and I hope telomeres have just started to peak your interest into the fascinating world of immortality.<\/p>\n

Sources:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. http:\/\/www.yourgenome.org\/facts\/what-is-a-telomere<\/li>\n
  2. http:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pmc\/articles\/PMC3370421\/<\/li>\n
  3. http:\/\/www.the-scientist.com\/?articles.view\/articleNo\/45947\/title\/First-Data-from-Anti-Aging-Gene-Therapy\/<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), as we all know, is the over arching storage system of our cells that allow us to live. \u00a0Without this storage system, or library of genes and genetic information we would be nothing; I wouldn’t be writing this at my home right know and you wouldn’t have the ability to be reading … Continue reading Telomeres: The Capstones of Our Life<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":783,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2],"class_list":["post-69","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-telomeres"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eportfolios.isucomm.iastate.edu\/karndt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eportfolios.isucomm.iastate.edu\/karndt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eportfolios.isucomm.iastate.edu\/karndt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eportfolios.isucomm.iastate.edu\/karndt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/783"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eportfolios.isucomm.iastate.edu\/karndt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/eportfolios.isucomm.iastate.edu\/karndt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81,"href":"https:\/\/eportfolios.isucomm.iastate.edu\/karndt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69\/revisions\/81"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eportfolios.isucomm.iastate.edu\/karndt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eportfolios.isucomm.iastate.edu\/karndt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eportfolios.isucomm.iastate.edu\/karndt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}