Mutated genes have some health benefits too. A group of researchers has discovered a healthy mutated gene that could potentially help people with heart disease.
Anti-Aging Gene Can Potentially Treat Heart Failure, Prevent Cardiovascular Disease
Researchers from the University of Bristol and the MultiMedica Group in Italy discovered an anti-aging gene found in people who live over 100 years old that could offer a solution to heart diseases, Daily Star reported.
The researchers discovered that the gene could protect the cells collected from heart failure patients who needed heart transplants.
They made the surprising discovery when they administered the anti-aging gene to middle-aged mice, and it stopped the decay of heart function. They also give the mutated gene to elderly rodents, whose hearts are similar to elderly patients with cardiovascular conditions. The gene seemingly rewound the heart's biological age by over 10 years in human equivalent.
Professor James Leiper, associate medical director of the Bristol Heart Institute at the University of Bristol, said the research is still in its early stages. However, they could see its potential to help prevent heart failure.
He added that everyone wants to know the secret of aging and how to slow down age-related diseases. It is given that heart function declines as one age. However, new research shows that a particular variant of a mutated gene found in long-lived individuals can stop or even reverse the aging of the mice's hearts.
Professor Paolo Madeddu, the Bristol Heart Institute's professor of experimental cardiovascular medicine, confirms that the addition of the anti-aging gene or healthy mutant gene can reverse the declining performance of elderly people's hearts.
Monica Cattaneo, a researcher of the MultiMedica Group in Milan, Italy, and the first author of the work, added that the cells of elderly patients supporting the construction of new blood vessels called "pericytes" performed less and are more aged. However, when they added the anti-aging gene or protein to the test tube, they noticed cardiac rejuvenation. The cardiac cells of elderly patients with heart failure have resumed functioning properly.
What's Next For The Healthy Mutant Gene
Since the research confirmed that adding the healthy mutant gene can reverse a declining heart, they are considering if giving the protein instead of the gene can also work.
Madeddu noted that gene therapy is already widely used to treat diseases due to bad genes, but a protein-based treatment is safe and more viable than gene therapy.
They have reportedly received funding from the Medical Research Council to test healthy gene therapy in Progeria. They will check how it will work with Hutchinson-Gilford syndrome, a genetic disease that causes early aging damage to children's hearts and blood vessels.
They also receive funding from the British Heart Foundation and Diabetes UK to test the protein in older and diabetic mice.
Gene and Lifestyle Play a Role in Enjoying a Healthy Heart
Madeddu explained that blood vessel and heart function is at risk as one age. However, the rate at which the harmful changes occur varies among people depending on one's lifestyle and genes.
Smoking, alcohol, and a sedentary lifestyle speed up the heart's aging process. However, eating well and exercising delay it.
He added that inheriting good genes from parents can help one stay young and healthy. According to him, genes are sequences of letters that encode proteins, and some of them can mutate.
Most mutations are insignificant. However, in a few cases, it can make the gene function worse or better, like the healthy mutant anti-aging gene they just discovered.
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