Ferrari and Aprile: Lecture XXVI Flashcards
Aging: The Cellular Mechanisms of Getting Old
What is aging?
a time dependent decline of the function of tissues and organs
What causes aging?
progressive deterioration and loss of the physiological function of the organs
What is time dependent in again?
genetical and functional damages
What is a way to intervene and go against the concept of aging?
rejuvenation
What is the organism trying to do during aging?
contrast functional decline by compensatory responses that ry to reestablish the homeostasis of tissues
What are the 9 candidate hallmarks of aging?
genomic instability
telomere attrition
epigenetic alterations
loss of proteostasis
deregulation of nutrient sensing
mitochondrial dysfunction
cellular senescence
stem cell exhaustion
altered intercellular communication
What causes genomic instability?
accumulation of DNA damage (accumulates in the telomere and leads to telomere attrition) that can be caused by intrinsic or extrinsic factors
What kind of mutation can affect nuclear or mitochondrial DNA?
point mutations
gain/loss of chromosomes
(both lead to telomere shortening and gene disruption due to reactivation of transposons or integration of viruses)
What kind of mutations give rise to premature aging syndromes like progeria?
mutations in genes that code for the nuclear lamina
What is lost or impaired as we age?
DNA repair mechanism, and it leads to the further accumulation of DNA damage
What activates the DNA Damage Response (DDR)?
different sources of stress that cause ss or ds breaks
What is the main and 1st mechanism that activates cellular senescence?
checkpoint arrest
What happens if the checkpoint arrest does not give rise to DNA repair?
cellular senescence occurs
What is the difference in aging and senescence?
aging is a more complex mechanism that includes several features, including senescence
senescence is the loss of the cell’s power to divide and grow (it is a process of deterioration with age)
What is telomere attrition?
deterioration of telomeres due to the progressive loss of the protective sequences of telomeres
Why is sheltering important to protect the edge of chromosomes?
prevent the access of DNA repair machinery at the edge of chromosomes
if the DNA repair machinery accesses the edge of the chromosome, the chromosome will be fused with another molecule of DNA (all of the chromosomes will be fused together)
What is the most susceptible part of chromosomes that is lost with aging?
telomeres in the presence of shelterings
What is reduced with aging that creates transcriptional noise and the repression of transcription?
global reduction of methylation
Why is it not okay for methylation to be reduced?
genes are reactivated and this leads to aberrant production of mRNA and aberrant proteins
What is aging characterized by?
imbalance of histone modifications, transcriptional changes, loss/gain of heterochromatin, breakdown of nuclear lamina with the involvement of Lamin genes, global hypomethylation, focal hypermethylation, and general changes in chromatin remodelling
What is proteostasis?
mechanism that is well-conserved that guarantees the proper folding and managinf of proteins inside the cells
What does the decrease of the activity of chaperones (hsp) or autophagy and proteosome give rise to?
accumulation of unfolded or misfolded proteins in aging (known as the loss of proteostasis)
What are some diseases that are a result of protein aggregation or misfolded proteins?
neurodegenerative proteins