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    Home > Active Ingredient News > Antitumor Therapy > The latest discovery of the potential role of “junk DNA” sequences in aging and cancer

    The latest discovery of the potential role of “junk DNA” sequences in aging and cancer

    • Last Update: 2021-07-27
    • Source: Internet
    • Author: User
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    The human body is basically composed of trillions of living cells


    A research team led by Professor Zhu Jiyue of the School of Pharmacy recently discovered a DNA region called VNTR2-1 that appears to drive the activity of the telomerase gene, which has been shown to prevent certain types of senescent cells


    Polymorphic tandem DNA repeats activate the human telomerase reverse transcriptase gene.


    Polymorphic tandem DNA repeats activate the human telomerase reverse transcriptase gene.


    Understanding how the telomerase gene is regulated and activated, and why it is only active in certain types of cells, may one day be the key to understanding how humans age and how to prevent the spread of cancer


    Zhu said his team’s latest discovery that VNTR2-1 helps drive the activity of the telomerase gene is particularly noteworthy because of the type of DNA sequence it represents


    "Nearly 50% of our genome is composed of repetitive DNA that does not code for proteins," Zhu said


    Their findings are based on a series of experiments that found that deleting DNA sequences from cancer cells—whether in human cell lines or mice—can cause telomeres to shorten, cell aging, and tumor growth to stop


    "It varies a lot, and our research actually shows that the telomerase gene is more active in people with longer sequences," Zhu said


    Since very short sequences were only found in African-American participants, they observed the group more closely and found that there were relatively fewer centenarians with short VNTR2-1 sequences compared to control participants


    "Our findings tell us that this VNTR2-1 sequence contributes to the genetic diversity of our aging and how we develop cancer," Zhu said


    Zhu pointed out that because African Americans have lived in the United States for generations, many of them have white ancestors, and they may have inherited some of this sequence from them




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