X-Message-Number: 14709
From: "Jan Coetzee" <>
Subject: Aging is just a flat battery
Date: Mon, 16 Oct 2000 22:22:08 -0400

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      "As the genes lose their cathodic protection and become more 
      oxidation-prone, the cells age," Heller says. He adds that some changes 
      result in cell death, others in mutations leading to cancer." 

      Cathodic Protection in the Genes 
      Jonathan Beard
      29 September 2000
        

       

      Cathodic protection is scarcely a new idea: Sir Humphrey Davy discovered 
      it in 1824 and the Royal Navy used it to protect its new steel-hulled 
      vessels from oxidation in the briny. But it may become the next way 
      chemists in the pharmaceutical industry protect the DNA in your cells from
      mutations, if the hypothesis advanced by University of Texas chemist Adam
      Heller is correct. 

      One of the best known examples of cathodic protection is galvanized steel 
      - the buckets and sheets of roofing coated with zinc. Ordinarily, oxygen, 
      which avidly gobbles up electrons, would oxidize steel. But the zinc 
      provides a constant flux of electrons to the iron by becoming the anode 
      that protects the iron cathode. The zinc, which corrodes, is the 
      'sacrificial anode,' and Heller believes that this same process is at work
      in genes. 


      Each cell contains long strands of DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) holding its
      genetic information in the form of genes. In between the genes are long 
      sequences of material whose function is not understood, which are often 
      called 'junk DNA'. Heller is proposing that these sequences are in fact 
      serving as sacrificial anodes, giving up their electrons to protect the 
      genes themselves. 


      The basic units of DNA are made up of guanine (G), adenine (A), thymine 
      (T), and cytosine (C). A pairs with T, and G with C to form base pairs. 
      Heller believes that the stretches of DNA, at least a thousand base-pairs 
      long, of GC pairs, are in fact sacrificial anodes. His hypothesis is built
      upon work by several teams of researchers in the USA, Europe, Japan and 
      Israel - including his own group in Austin. Last year Swiss scientists 
      discovered that these long strands of DNA are conductors, conducting 
      electron vacancies, or holes. "As the genes lose their cathodic protection
      and become more oxidation-prone, the cells age," Heller says. He adds 
      that some changes result in cell death, others in mutations leading to 
      cancer. 


      Heller foresees the development - if his hypothesis is proven - of drugs 
      (such as NADH, or nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide, already popular as a 
      coenzyme) that will work within cells to protect the GC-rich sequences, 
      and thus the genes themselves. 

     Related link/website:
       University of Texas

       

      ChemWeb.com search results:
       DNA and 'sequence of base pairs'


       

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