A new Northwestern Medicine study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences has explored the impacts of aging on essential cellular processes, findings that could shape the development of future anti-aging therapeutic strategies. Ali Shilatifard, Ph.D., the chair and Robert Francis Furchgott Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics, was the senior author of the study.
Transcription by RNA polymerase II—a multiprotein complex that transcribes DNA into messenger RNA (mRNA)—is essential for protein-coding gene expression and cellular function, both of which become dysregulated with aging.
Characterizing the effects of aging on this transcriptional machinery, therefore, may reveal new targets for the development of anti-aging therapies, Shilatifard said.
In the current study, the scientists used a multimodal approach to examine RNA extracted from liver, kidney and brain tissue cells of young (11 weeks old) and old (72 weeks old) mice. Similar analyses were performed using publicly available total RNA-seq data from young and aged human patient tissue samples.
Short-read RNA sequencing of these tissue samples revealed a reduction in overall transcription activity and frequency in aging tissues, with no changes in elongation rates.
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