Scientists Find Toolkit To Aid Repair of Damaged DNA (upi.com) 25
An anonymous reader quotes UPI: Scientists have developed a technique for repairing damaged DNA. The breakthrough, published this week in the journal Nature Communications, could pave the way for new therapies for cancer and neurodegenerative disorders.
The accumulation of DNA damage is responsible for aging, cancer and neurological diseases like motor neuron disease, also known as ALS.
Until now, scientists have struggled to find ways to repair this kind of damage. However, researchers have discovered a new protein called TEX264 that can combine with other enzymes to find and destroy toxic proteins that bind to DNA and trigger damage.
Scientists are hoping to identify ways to use TEX264 and its protein relatives to repair the DNA damage linked with disorders like cancer and ALS. New therapies inspired by the latest research could also be used to repair the purposeful DNA damage caused by chemotherapy.
The accumulation of DNA damage is responsible for aging, cancer and neurological diseases like motor neuron disease, also known as ALS.
Until now, scientists have struggled to find ways to repair this kind of damage. However, researchers have discovered a new protein called TEX264 that can combine with other enzymes to find and destroy toxic proteins that bind to DNA and trigger damage.
Scientists are hoping to identify ways to use TEX264 and its protein relatives to repair the DNA damage linked with disorders like cancer and ALS. New therapies inspired by the latest research could also be used to repair the purposeful DNA damage caused by chemotherapy.
Telomeres (Score:3, Informative)
You can patch, but the telomere clock mandates eventual hardware replacement.
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Distracting from reality with what I didn't say, might work.
Oh wait, not at all.
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I'll pick this one up when you evidence.
Like, an actual person "cured of aging".
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But, since we're doing Blade Runner...
I call Sean Young, as of 1982.
Evidence... (Score:2)
Sure... we'll get right onto that, right after you give us evidence that you exist. I think I'm just imagining you. :P
PROTIP: When you haven't brought any evidence for your own claims yourself, you do not get to demand evidence from the opposition. Nor to assume your claims are any more correct. Or any more than just the option that you want to be true the most.
You don't know either.
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You, personally, have already been given extensive evidence.
Here it is again. [slashdot.org]
Whether you lie about that, or lie about whether it is evidence, will change nothing with regard to the fact it is evidence.
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Better protip: Once you've admitted your desperation by using a "Royal we", you've already lost.
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It is an very useful way of taking out the trash.
I'll quote you on that, later.
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I'll quote you on that, later.
Please do not wait too long on that. I am way past the pimpled youth stage of my life;)
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Eventually, we will make a retrovirus that will replace missing DNA and append telomeres in chromosomes. It may not happen in our lifetimes but humans are nothing if not persistent in trying to not die.
Beware too much hype on this alone. (Score:5, Interesting)
There's lots of 'DNA repair' mechanisms. Even aging itself is a kind of DNA repair mechanism.
Just like various charcksum and parity checks in code, there's lots of mechanisms in our convergent evolutionary processes to cross-check that everything works, and bypass/prevent scenarios that will break functionality..
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/p... [nih.gov]
That's what this protein is - another of several mechanisms for identifying cells that need to be destroyed via lysosome (basically self-destruct acid bits in cells) cell destruction.
Lots of our epigenetics is about this too - of having gene expression change during a lifetime, and culling cells that don't dance in tune.
Other species do this better though - some of our closer mammal relatives like whales and some species of moles seem to have better cancer reduction strategies and such.
But any one path is going to have its drawbacks and limits.
So keep that in mind - this is neat research, but sort of like with battery research, there's lots of mechanisms that MIGHT show promise, and deserve to be researched - but most won't pan out with real results exactly as you'd want.
Ryan Fenton
Re: Beware too much hype on this alone. (Score:2)
It is quite literally impossible for this to show promise though.
As I said, it is like discovering airbags that *protect* heads in car crashes, and claiming they show promise in finding a way to *repair* head injuries.
Why am I thinking of the monkey erection scene in Idiocracy, right now?
it's groundhog day (Score:2)
all news today are dupe from this week !
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Oh, yes.
And Andie MacDowell, as of 1993.
Two unrelated things. (Score:2)
How does finding a protein that *prevents* damage help at all with *repairing* damage??
This is like saying scientist found airbags and are hoping they can find a way to use them to repair injured heads. --.--
Not what the paper said (Score:5, Informative)
Toolkit to repair damaged DNA (Score:2)
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Scientist: " Oh look! I found a DNA repair toolkit. I just need to make room in my inventory. "