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A new study investigating the extraordinary longevity of the naked mole-rat has identified an evolved DNA repair mechanism unique to the species. These bizarre, burrowing rodents boast a maximum lifespan of about 40 years, making them the world’s longest-lived rodents known to science.
The findings, published recently in the journal ScienceThis provides potential insight into why naked mole-rats display remarkable resistance to a broad spectrum of age-related diseases. The animals are naturally immune to cancer, show no measurable damage to the brain and spinal cord, and are resistant to arthritis. This unique flexibility has made them the subject of intense scientific investigation.
The research, led by a team from Tonji University in Shanghai, China, focused specifically on the natural process of DNA repair within the body’s cells. When genetic material is damaged, an unpaired DNA strand is usually used as a template to repair the damage.
The study pinpointed a particular protein involved in the mole rat’s damage-sensing and repair system, suggesting that this highly efficient repair ability is the root cause of their extended, disease-free lives.
Reward Cellular Pathway
Commenting on the breakthrough, Professor Gabriel Balmus, who studies DNA repair and aging at the University of Cambridge, described the discovery as exciting and “the tip of the iceberg” in fully understanding the animals’ exceptionally long lives.
“You can think of CGAS as a biological Lego piece – humans and naked mole-rats have the same basic shape, but the mole-rat version has some connectors flipped, allowing it to assemble a completely different structure and function,” Balmus said.
He explained that over millions of years of evolution, naked mole rats have “rewired” this cellular pathway and “used it to their advantage”.
“This discovery raises fundamental questions: How did evolution reprogram the same protein to function in the opposite way? What changed? And is this an isolated case or part of a broader evolutionary pattern?”
“I think if we could reverse-engineer the biology of the naked mole-rat, we could bring some much-needed treatments to an aging society,” Professor Balmus said.
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