Telomeres: The Key to Life?
Lengthening telomeres to lengthen life
Victoria Albert
Introduction
Telomeres are a hot topic in the medical research field right now. Research has shown that the lengthening of telomeres may lead to living longer lives and defying illnesses. Every time cells divide, telomeres shorten. Once telomeres are too short, cell death occurs. The enzyme telomerase maintains and helps prevent wear and tear of telomeres. After a while, telomerase is no longer produced and telomeres wear faster. Many scientists are enthralled by the idea of being able to control this enzyme to help produce it to keep telomeres longer. If we are able to lengthen our telomeres, some scientists say that we may be able to live much longer and healthier lives.
Telomeres and Aging
Topic 1: Telomeres and Aging
This is a wonderful Youtube video that explains what telomeres actually are and specifically how they effect aging. Narrated by DNA telomere researcher William H. Andrews, PH.D., he dives into the specifics of telomeres and paints the viewer a picture of what they actually are. Andrews explains that humans have 100 trillion cells and every cell contains a nucleus that houses DNA. In that DNA, there are genes and chromosomes that are made up of hundreds of millions of molecules. All of these molecules are packed tightly together. At the end of the chromosome, Andrews explains that there are long repeating sequences of DNA. When cell division is necessary, the DNA is copied and DNA replication occurs. In DNA replication, the enzyme DNA polymerase copies and helps produce the new strands of DNA. However, the enzymes can't replicate all the way to the very end of the telomere, which results in losing DNA and shortening the telomere. Andrews explains that when we are born, we have around 10,000 bases, but as we continue to get older, our telomeres shorten with the constant cell division and we begin to die once we get to about 5,000 bases. Andrews then lists off the effects that we see when we get older and our telomeres shorten. We begin to experience muscle degeneration, fatigue, memory and vision loss, and other common aging effects. Andrews is leading a team of scientists in researching the enzyme telomerase and how we can control it to keep our telomeres longer. He believes that once we learn how to control it, people will begin to defy the effects of aging ("Telomeres and Aging," 2013).
Topic 2: Are Telomeres The Key to Aging and Cancer?
Telomeres are located at the end of chromosomes, and as this article says, "...they have been compared with the plastic tips on shoelaces..." This is because telomeres keep the chromosome ends intact and help prevent fraying ends and genetic jumbling. However, every time a cell divides, the telomeres get shorter and shorter, which research is showing is linked to aging, cancer, and even death. Therefore, if we can lengthen telomeres, does this mean we can prevent aging and illness? Some cells, like heart muscle, do not divide constantly, but others, like skin, blood, and bone rely on telomeres to keep their genes together and intact. With time though and much dividing, telomeres begin to wear, which is were telomerase comes into play. Eventually though, even telomerase runs dry and telomeres continues to wear. In regards to cancer, cells divide quickly, which leads to shortening telomeres. Therefore, cancer cells produce more than normal amounts of telomerase to allow for rapid division without cell death. Researchers are now trying to measure telomerase levels to detect cancer and even attempting to block telomerase to make cancer cells die. This too though has its drawbacks, as blocking telomerase may lead to things such as infertility and healing. If we can control telomerase though in healthy cells, some researchers believe we may hold the keys to aging. Controlling telomerase could open doors to creating an unlimited amount of human cells for transplantation and research along with promoting longer, healthier lives ("Are Telomeres," 2014).
Topic 3: Healthful Living May Lengthen Telomeres And Lifespans
This article largely talks about how healthy daily living and activities may lengthen your telomeres. Eating right, exercising, and reducing stress has been shown in studies that it can lengthen telomeres and lead to healthier and longer lives. Researcher Dean Ornish from the University of California explains that research shows that things such as smoking, stress, and not exercising actually shortens telomeres. Ornish explains that even just carving out 30 minutes to exercise or to do meditation helps dramatically. One research showed that men who practiced these healthful decisions lengthen their telomeres by 10 percent. However, a surprise to the research team was that telomerase, the enzyme that helps prevent wearing in telomeres, was not higher in these men. Researchers are hoping to better understand telomerase and how to use it to safely control telomere lengthening. Since it has been show that cancer cells produce more telomerase to promote rapid division without the cell dying, so scientists are wary when it comes to promoting higher levels of telomerase without more research. Ornish continued to talk about how living healthy lifestyles and promoting lengthening of telomeres can prevent and even cause chronic illness such as heart disease or Type 2 diabetes to regress. Research also shows that many of those who are or are older than 100 have longer telomeres than 85 year olds. Many scientists believe that healthy living, making good life decisions, and promoting emotional well-being will lengthen your telomeres and lengthen your life ("Healthful Living," 2013).
How will this impact future medicine practices?
Telomere lengthening can do so much for us. According to the article, "Are Telomeres The Key to Aging and Cancer?," if we are able to control telomerase, we might be able to make mass amounts of cells to grow organs for transplants. We may also be able to produce insulin-producing cells that would cure diabetes! If someone was severely burned, we could produce more skin cells to heal the burn. In addition, if we were able to produce any amount of human cells that we wanted, laboratories could use the cells to test new drugs to help make them safer. Also, having the ability lengthen telomeres and understanding telomerase better, people could be living much longer and we may be able to greatly slow the aging process down. The possibilities are endless!
Role of the Nurse
Since nurses are not geneticists, we cannot work in the lab and produce ground breaking research on telomeres and telomerase. However, the article, "Healthful Living May Lengthen Telomeres and Lifespans," talked all about how making healthy life choices can actually lengthen your telomeres. Our role as nurses in this subject is to promote healthy living and educate our patients to the benefits of eating healthy, exercising, and reducing stress. For example, smoking causes the shortening of telomeres. We could encourage patients that smoke to try other activities such as yoga to relieve stress instead of turning to cigarettes. In overweight patients, we can encourage eating healthy and trying to carve out at least 30 minutes a day to walk, which has been shown to help lengthen telomeres. If our patients are healthier and their telomeres lengthen, we could see a decrease in chronic illnesses and a rise people living longer.
Summary
I learned so much through this project and am thrilled with how it turned out. Before I started, I remember talking about telomeres in class and how lengthening them could help prevent aging, but the research I have done on this subject has taken my knowledge base of telomeres to a new level. It is an exciting topic that has so many possibilities that could help so many people. People with diabetes may be able to be cured if we can produce insulin producing cells ("Are Telomeres," 2014), lengthening telomeres through healthy living may be able to reverse heart disease ("Healthful Living," 2013), blocking telomerase in certain areas could stop cancer dead in its tracks, and we as people may be able to live longer! I am excited to stay up to date with the new and upcoming research on the lengthening of telomeres and how it could and can change our future.
References
Are Telomeres The Key To Aging And Cancer? (2014, January 1). Retrieved November 18, 2014.
Healthful Living May Lengthen Telomeres And Lifespans. (2013, September 17). Retrieved November 18, 2014.
Telomeres and Aging [Motion picture]. (2013). United States: Telomere Biomedical.