My scientists discovered that dormant archaeviruses in the human genome promote aging

"8% of the 'fossil' sequence of the human genome is integrated into ancient viral genes, and we have found for the first time that its activation can induce aging
.
" On January 8, Liu Guanghui, a researcher at the Institute of Zoology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, told Science and Technology Daily that the study also proved that inhibiting the "resurrection" of these genes can delay the aging
of tissues and the body.
The study was published online in
the journal Cell.

For millions of years, the human immune system has actively responded to viral invasion, integrating it into the human genome to be taken over by the genetic regulatory system of the host cell, and co-evolved
.
As we age, genetic regulation is "negligent", and archaea gene elements can escape supervision and be awakened and activated, leading to aging
.

In order to find the mechanism of archaeal virus gene awakening, the research team carried out "bottom-up" abnormal research on transcription and methylation in different aging research systems built by themselves, such as childhood Progeria syndrome and adult Progeria syndrome
.
With the cross-cutting technology of multiple disciplines such as high-throughput strand-specific transcript sequencing, whole genome DNA methylation sequencing, and immunoelectron microscopy, the scope is narrowed down step by step, and finally the "source"
of archaeviral activation is accurately identified.

Liu Guanghui introduced that the dense DNA packaging method in senescent cells has become relaxed, which has led to the transcriptional activation of archaeal viral genes, and the translation of viral proteins and packaging into viral particles
.

An even more surprising finding was that these viral particles can effectively transmit and amplify aging signals between organs, tissues and cells, eventually causing the surrounding young cells to age due to
"infection".

After figuring out the mechanism, the team continued to explore ways to
suppress the virus.
"We can first use gene editing to silence
the regulatory elements of the resurrection of ancient viral genes.
" Liu Guanghui introduced that through the analysis of different links such as latent, resurrection, and cell-to-cell transmission, researchers have developed more inhibition strategies, and technologies such as small molecule drugs targeting reverse transcriptases and neutralizing antibodies targeting viral envelope proteins can also delay tissue or body aging
.

This study creatively puts forward the theory of archaeal virus resurrection mediating the programmatic and infectious nature of aging, and uses cutting-edge cross-cutting technologies such as molecular imaging, virology, immunology, chemical biology and molecular pathology to dynamically capture the "resurrection" process, which provides a new theoretical basis
for the programmatic, cascade amplification and interventionability of aging.