New telomerase finding only a small-medium sized deal

The press has been making a big deal of research made public a few days ago that correlates a genetic defect in one of the key telomerase-producing genes TERC with shorter telomeres later in life.  This link leads to 23 news stories on the research.  The abstract of the study itself Common variants near TERC are associated with mean telomere length reads succinctly:  We conducted genome-wide association analyses of mean leukocyte telomere length in 2,917 individuals, with follow-up replication in 9,492 individuals. We identified an association with telomere length on 3q26 (rs12696304, combined P = 3.72 x 10(-14)) at a locus that includes TERC, which encodes the telomerase RNA component. Each copy of the minor allele of rs12696304 was associated with an approximately 75-base-pair reduction in mean telomere length, equivalent to approximately 3.6 years of age-related telomere-length attrition.“  This site graphically shows key data produced by the study. 

 The study says that people who possessed the gene variation (minor allele of rs12696304) had shorter telomere lengths, equivalent to 3.6 years of aging.  People who had two copies of the variation had telomere lengths expected for people 7.2 years older.  The implication is that people with the gene defect age faster.  I think the study is a good piece of research to add to the aging puzzle but that it is not the big-deal breakthrough suggested in the news headlines because:

         The result is what would be expected all along; a defect in a telomerase-making gene results in the production of less telomerase resulting in telomere lengths being less than expected.  Some of the headlines make declarations like Scientists find genetic link to ageing  which are rather misleading.  The link of telomerase genes to aging has been known for decades now. “The existence of a compensatory shortening of telomere (telomerase) mechanism was first predicted by Soviet biologist Alexey Olovnikov in 1973[1], who also suggested the Telomere hypothesis of ageing and the Telomere relations to cancer. Telomerase was discovered by Carol W. Greider and Elizabeth Blackburn in 1985 –(ref).”  We knew back in 1998 that there was Severe growth defect in mouse cells lacking the telomerase RNA component.

         Several other gene variations also lead to telomere dysfunction or shortening and/or accelerated aging.  See, for example, the blog posts Werner Syndrome – another model for aging, Progerin, HGPS and a possible new theory of aging and Hoyeraal-Hreidarsson Syndrome and telomere dysfunction.Gene variations that lengthen telomeres or extend lifespans tend to grab me more.  For example, a report on how adding extra copies of a telomerase gene and a P53 gene can extend the life of mice by 26% to 40%(ref).

The idea raised by this study of people aging at variable rates depending on their genes is an interesting and probably valid one though definitely not new. Children born with a mutation in the LMNA gene look old and wizened and are experiencing the ravaging diseases of old age when they are only 14 or 15.  See the blog entry Progerin, HGPS and a possible new theory of aging.  Personally, I believe lifestyle and behavioral factors affect the rate of aging along with the genetic ones.  That is the point of the lifestyle and dietary supplements regimens suggested in my treatise ANTI-AGING FIREWALLS THE SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY OF LONGEVITY.

About Vince Giuliano

Being a follower, connoisseur, and interpreter of longevity research is my latest career, since 2007. I believe I am unique among the researchers and writers in the aging sciences community in one critical respect. That is, I personally practice the anti-aging interventions that I preach and that has kept me healthy, young, active and highly involved at my age, now 93. I am as productive as I was at age 45. I don’t know of anybody else active in that community in my age bracket. In particular, I have focused on the importance of controlling chronic inflammation for healthy aging, and have written a number of articles on that subject in this blog. In 2014, I created a dietary supplement to further this objective. In 2019, two family colleagues and I started up Synergy Bioherbals, a dietary supplement company that is now selling this product. In earlier reincarnations of my career. I was Founding Dean of a graduate school and a full University Professor at the State University of New York, a senior consultant working in a variety of fields at Arthur D. Little, Inc., Chief Scientist and C00 of Mirror Systems, a software company, and an international Internet consultant. I got off the ground with one of the earliest PhD's from Harvard in a field later to become known as computer science. Because there was no academic field of computer science at the time, to get through I had to qualify myself in hard sciences, so my studies focused heavily on quantum physics. In various ways I contributed to the Computer Revolution starting in the 1950s and the Internet Revolution starting in the late 1980s. I am now engaged in doing the same for The Longevity Revolution. I have published something like 200 books and papers as well as over 430 substantive.entries in this blog, and have enjoyed various periods of notoriety. If you do a Google search on Vincent E. Giuliano, most if not all of the entries on the first few pages that come up will be ones relating to me. I have a general writings site at www.vincegiuliano.com and an extensive site of my art at www.giulianoart.com. Please note that I have recently changed my mailbox to vegiuliano@agingsciences.com.
This entry was posted in Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink.

5 Responses to New telomerase finding only a small-medium sized deal

  1. Res says:

    Hi Vince
    I think you might have watched “unbreakable”. If there is a genetic variation that a mutation in LMNA gene causes progeria, it is equally possible to have a mutation that promotes youthfulness.
    Such a genetic modification/mutation might have been the reason for the extraordinary longevity of the parrots who live longer(100+ years!) or cockatoos or storm petrels

  2. admin says:

    Res

    Yes. An interesting observation. But I did not watch “unbreakable.”

    The scientists who study evolution point out an interesting factor. Species in environments where there are no or fewer predators tend to have longer and longer life spans. Where there are more active predators, reproduction earlier in life and shorter life spans are favored.

    Vince

  3. Charlie Stromeyer Jr. says:

    Hi Vince,

    I like your blog and this new paper in “Nature” which describes novel connections between iPS cells ~ telomerase ~ telomeres:

    http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature08792.html

  4. admin says:

    Charlie:
    Welcome to the blog anmd good to see you joining in. I will check out the Nature paper and comment on it either as a comment here or as part of some new blog post. In 1994 I was one of a tiny group of fringe people who thought that telomeres and telomerase may provide important keys to understanding aging. Now I am hearing of new important telomerasse papers almost daily.
    Vince

Leave a Reply