[HN Gopher] A tiny genetic change inflicts old age on young kids
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       A tiny genetic change inflicts old age on young kids
        
       Author : bookofjoe
       Score  : 35 points
       Date   : 2023-02-12 18:44 UTC (4 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.nature.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.nature.com)
        
       | danbmil99 wrote:
       | This horrible disease touched my extended family. Unfortunately,
       | rare 'orphan' diseases are under-funded because there aren't
       | enough patients to make them profitable. More Pharma shareholder
       | value with yet another drug that appears to have a slight
       | statistical effect on Alzheimer's than with a full cure for
       | progeria.
        
       | nscalf wrote:
       | I'm curious how much of the research going into Nature if funded
       | by the US government.
        
         | tgv wrote:
         | Open a journal, sample a bunch of articles. Usually, there's an
         | acknowledgement (sometimes in the first footnote) with the
         | program that funded the research. If there is none, it's
         | possibly a regular, university funded project, in which case
         | you'd have to look up the uni's funding.
         | 
         | E.g., for this article:
         | https://www.nature.com/articles/s43587-023-00361-w#Ack1
        
         | A_D_E_P_T wrote:
         | This particular paper was funded by the National Natural
         | Science Foundation of China, along with various other Chinese
         | organizations. China's biology/biotech research is top-tier,
         | these days, and the Chinese government actively funds quite a
         | lot of basic research in the life sciences. Interestingly, very
         | little of it seems to translate to in-country pharmaceutical
         | development.
        
         | [deleted]
        
       | klyrs wrote:
       | ... in humans. Wake me up when it's found to work on cheese.
        
         | chartpath wrote:
         | Haha, much better response than the usual "wake me up when it's
         | replicated in humans" any time there is a mouse study shared.
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | interlock wrote:
         | I'd kickstart this, I want older cheese faster.
        
           | lisper wrote:
           | Time dilation is what you need.
        
             | contravariant wrote:
             | Though that does have the slight side effect of ageing the
             | rest of the world as well.
        
               | lisper wrote:
               | Sometimes you have to make some sacrifices for good
               | cheese.
        
       | A_D_E_P_T wrote:
       | That summary is paywalled, but the paper it supposedly summarizes
       | is open access. Available here:
       | https://www.nature.com/articles/s43587-023-00361-w
       | 
       | Basically, the authors were able to treat progeria (to some
       | extent) by designing a peptide which prevented progerin (the
       | characteristic progeria protein) from binding with the ubiquitous
       | cellular regulator protein BUBR1.
       | 
       | It has been known for about 20 years that BUBR1 irregularities
       | can be associated with early-onset aging phenotypes:
       | https://www.nature.com/articles/ng1382
        
       | yieldcrv wrote:
       | are there any learnings to delay the other indicators of old age?
        
         | ben_w wrote:
         | Loads, but it's still hard to tell which of them are (1) more
         | than just statistical anomalies, (2) aren't limited to in
         | vitro/in muribus, and (3) don't have "cause cancer" as a side
         | effect.
        
       | m3kw9 wrote:
       | Is this aging or damage that looks like aging?
        
         | colechristensen wrote:
         | Aging is a set of effects, in one sense of course it's not
         | aging if the time hasn't actually passed but it seems that some
         | of the same effects are happening.
        
           | EGreg wrote:
           | Are you saying regular aging is due to damage rather than the
           | genetic plan? Like prostate getting bigger etc.
        
             | MacsHeadroom wrote:
             | Aging is failure to follow the genetic plan faithfully due
             | to breakdown of various epigenetic processes.
        
               | moralestapia wrote:
               | Nope.
               | 
               | Diseases that have to do with "failure to follow the
               | genetic plan [...]" are much more worse than aging, you
               | don't even get to age!
        
               | 988747 wrote:
               | Don't see how that contradicts anything GP said. "Aging
               | bad, genetic diseases worse" - that's the gist of the
               | disscussion here.
        
       ___________________________________________________________________
       (page generated 2023-02-12 23:00 UTC)