Current research is looking closely into the
process of aging and seeking ways to slow it down. In order to test new drugs, there
has to be a way to determine if the intervention is having an impact on the
underlying process of aging— not just whether it has an effect on one of the
body’s systems, such as affecting blood pressure or cholesterol levels, but whether
it slows down the actual aging process.
Currently,
the only way to test drugs that are aimed at extending life is to conduct studies
that follow subjects to the end of their lives. This can take an impractically
long time. What’s needed are biomarkers of the aging process that could help
determine a person’s life expectancy, making it unnecessary to wait many years
for the results of studies. If a set of biomarkers of aging were identified, it
would also have the effect of demonstrating that there actually is an underlying
mechanism of aging that coordinates changes across the body’s systems.
I
make my point clear with the example. There was a research aimed at Identification of Biomarkers of Human Skin
Ageing in Both Genders. The goal of our work has been to investigate
the mechanisms of gender-independent human skin ageing and examine the
hypothesis of skin being an adequate model of global ageing. Research
showed that only 4 overlapping gene OR52N2, F6FR1OP2, TUBAL3 and STK40
showed differential regulation with age. Interestingly, Wnt signaling pathway
showed to be significantly downregulated in aged skin with decreased gene and
protein expression for males and females. In addition, several genes involved
in central nervous system (CNS) ageing showed to be expressed in human skin and
were significantly regulated with age. Thus, the WNT-signaling pathway could be
a good biomarker of aging.
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