Worm Gene Found To Have Direct Link With Aging

Instead of searching for a fountain of youth, the spotlight should shift to the lowly worm for the recipe of eternal youth. Researchers of the journal Cell seem to have discovered that cause of aging in human beings is the in-activeness of a worm gene called elt-3.

According to recent studies, when this worm gene becomes less active, a lot of other genesdefine react similarly resulting in aging. Scientists are trying to figure out if a similar process takes place in animals. If it does, keeping these genes active may become the key for prolonged youth.

Stanford University's Yelena Budovskaya and colleagues experimented with worms in their labs that lived out their days without turning into another animal’s meal. Their studies show that aging is written into a worm’s genetic script. The elt-3 gene was one of the worms' important aging genes. When the elt-3 slowed down, aging picked up its pace.

Research don by Budovskaya's team showed how ageing is the result of DNA damage in humans and other mammals. This damage can be in the form of stress and inflammation. This fact isn’t altered by the recent worm findings.

Scientists feel that it would be interesting to see if the changes in gene activity would be a part of the aging process. This could lead to researches to find ways to rearrange the genetic script for aging.