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Cells are the basic units that constitute organisms in biology, and they also experience the process of "birth, old age, sickness and death"
.
Among them, cell division and replication are the "weathervane" of cell lifespan and the basis for the growth, development and reproduction of organisms
Of course, ideals are always beautiful
.
Sometimes the immortal proliferation of cells may cause major problems.
Recently, a research report jointly brought by Chinese and foreign researchers from Washington State University, Northeast Forestry University, and Pennsylvania State University pointed out that there is a gene called VNTR2-1 that can regulate human life span and cancer progression.
Genes can close the way for cancer cells to multiply indefinitely, and inhibit tumor growth like "drawing from the bottom"
.
This brings new ideas for aging and cancer treatment
The related report was published on PNAS with the title Polymorphic tandem DNA repeats activate the human telomerase reverse transcriptase gene
.
In fact, in the process of unraveling the mechanism behind cell death, scientists discovered a substance called telomeres at the top of chromosomes
.
Normally, each time a cell divides, the telomere is shortened, and when the telomere is shortened to the limit, the cell cannot continue to divide, so the telomere is also regarded as the "clock of life
However, this clock sometimes fails
.
Beginning in 1984, molecular biologists gradually discovered that there is telomerase that can maintain the length of telomeres.
In this experiment, the researchers first used bacterial artificial chromosomes (BAC) to identify key promoters that affect hTERT transcription.
Among them, VNTR2-1 attracted the attention of researchers because it contains a large number of enhancer consensus sites
.
Once VNTR2-1 is removed from the cell using gene editing tools, the activity of the hTERT promoter is reduced by 10-30 times
These data indicate that the VNTR2-1 gene is the key to cell proliferation, and its deletion leads to shortening of telomeres, which affects the proliferation ability of cancer cells
.
After hTERT retrovirus transduction, cancer cells continue to proliferate
Will the absence of VNTR2-1 further affect the development of cancer? Researchers used xenograft tumor models to evaluate the role of VNTR2-1 in cancer development
.
The results showed that after implanting cancer cells lacking the VNTR2-1 gene, the tumor growth in the mouse model was very slow, and some developed tumors suddenly disappeared without a trace on the 63rd day, indicating that VNTR2-1 is tumor growth.
Since telomere length is related to human lifespan, will VNTR2-1 affect human aging? The researchers then randomly selected some centenarians (age range 98-108 years old) in the Georgia Centenarian Research Project for DNA genetic analysis, and used the data of participants aged 20-59 in the project as a reference
.
The results show that older people who live longer tend to have longer VNTR2-1 alleles, indicating that the length of VNTR2-1 is an important factor in human lifespan
The length of VNTR2-1 is closely related to human life span
Of course, the short VNTR2-1 sequence does not mean that the life span will be shorter
.
The leader of the study, Jiyue Zhu, a professor in the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Washington, said this may mean that the activity of the telomerase gene is lower and people are less likely to develop cancer
.
In fact, several decades ago, scientists suggested that shortening telomeres may be a way for the body to fight cancer
.
In 2020, a report on "eLife" provided the first evidence that telomere shortening helps prevent human cancer by analyzing gene mutations in family patients with a special cancer history
.
Note: The original text has been deleted
Reference materials:
[1]https://
