X-Message-Number: 14709 From: "Jan Coetzee" <> Subject: Aging is just a flat battery Date: Mon, 16 Oct 2000 22:22:08 -0400 This is a multi-part message in MIME format. ------=_NextPart_000_0110_01C037BF.85E78E00 Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="----=_NextPart_001_0111_01C037BF.85E78E00" ------=_NextPart_001_0111_01C037BF.85E78E00 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" "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' E-mail this Article to a Friend Type e-mail address then hit return: ------=_NextPart_001_0111_01C037BF.85E78E00 Content-Type: text/html; [ AUTOMATICALLY SKIPPING HTML ENCODING! ] Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=14709