1. [Epigenetics of aging: a breakthrough direction in gerontology?]
- Author
-
Jagarovi DE
- Subjects
- Aged, Humans, Moscow, Russia, Aging genetics, Epigenesis, Genetic, Geriatrics
- Abstract
Whereas genome is identical in all types of tissue and relatively stable during the lifetime, the epigenome of the multicellular organism changes during development and aging. The strong effects of age on one of the central epigenetic modifications - DNA cytosine methylation levels have been identified by Dr. B.F.Vanyushin et al., in the A.N.Belozersky Institute of Physico-Chemical Biology of MSU, Moscow, Russia in the 1960s. This discovery served as an impetus to numerous studies of DNA methylation, as a result of which it became possible not only to calculate with an amazing accuracy the age of the organism regardless of its physiological indices, but also to reveal pathological changes in it. Moreover, in the future, these discoveries can promote the development of a new direction of therapy - epigenetic therapy.
- Published
- 2018