Apoptosis reversed?

[fusion]

As our cells systematicly commit suicide ;) The cells proteasome tags down and kills proteins no longer needed. The proteasome regulates the life of the cell.

But during apoptosis the enzyme called casapases is released, disabling the Proteasome. The slow build of proteins ultimately kills the cell.

 

If in some form, maybe a virus could provide DNA instructions to overide the Caspases enzyme and to start deconstructing the protein buildup. The cell would have been brought back to life. The cell would probably have to have immediate acess to food for energy.

[fusion]

It might be possible only for cells, that are perfectly perserved with the DNa intact. ;)

[OpenMind5]

Heres a god web page that gives a little more insight to Proteasome.

 

http://www.plosbiology.org/plosonline/?request=get-document&doi=10.1371/journal.pbio.0020013

 

Op5

[Fishteacher73]

I remember reading somewhere that the centromeres were invilved with the aging of cells, but do not really remember. Something about each nuclear division causes pieces of the centomere to break down/ break off and eventually cause the cell to be unable to divide.

[TeleMad]

I remember reading somewhere that the centromeres were invilved with the aging of cells, but do not really remember. Something about each nuclear division causes pieces of the centomere to break down/ break off and eventually cause the cell to be unable to divide.

 

Not centromeres, but telomeres.

 

When the DNA polymerase gets near the very end of a linear chromsome, it can't make a copy of all of those nucleotides. So our chromosomes shrink from the end over time. This isn't a problem for many divisions a chromosome undergoes because our telomeres don't code for proteins and consist of highly repetitive "junk", so you have a lot of copies of junk that can be lost without losing important genetic information. But there's a limit.

 

Many organisms have an enzyme called telomerase that overcomes the problem, so they don't suffer from the shortening of telomeres with cell divisions. Scientists were troubled about the thought of engineering human somatic cells to produce and use telomerase - as a means of extending human lifespans - because our cells might become immortal, like cancer cells. I haven't kept up with this for the last several years, so don't know what the latest on this is.

[Sonic213]

in what way would the function of apoptosis be ignored/ not respond?

[Sonic213]

also, in what way would apoptosis go haywire?

have there ever been any occurrences where apoptosis caused problems for people?

i'm a junior fellow so i don't know much could someone please answer my questions

=/

[TeleMad]

also, in what way would apoptosis go haywire?

have there ever been any occurrences where apoptosis caused problems for people?

i'm a junior fellow so i don't know much could someone please answer my questions

=/

 

Maybe we just don't know the answer :-)

 

All I can say is that if apoptosis went haywire it probably wouldn't be a good thing.

[MojcaS]

First of all- human cell has many mechanisms for activation of apoptosis and it should have- if one blocks for any reason than other turns on. Apoptosis is final answer for sick cell for not to interfere (replicate and overgrow other healthy cells) to be eliminated- but apoptosis is not reason for us to age. Telomeres are short endings of chromosomes made by telomerasis. During replication of DNA telomeres are shortened by polymerase (because of the nature of replication) so each cell has only final number of replication, because when telomeres are gone polymerase start to shorten genes - that is why cell must die- if not it would certainly not work properly. Secont- during lifetime intententionally or not we wear cells down- they become less and less vital- enzymes are making more and more mistakes, DNA is not translated and replicated properly.... so we are more o less determined to die.

 

Yust one thing for brainstorming: If we would (could) stop apoptosys- wouldnt that mean more and more diseases ? I prefere to die than to live as one big cancer.

[nemo]

yes, it's an old thread, but i'm curious...

 

this thread discusses (as far as i can tell) the systematic weakening of cells' ability to succesfully reproduce themselves, which appears to be a somewhat important factor as we get older. i find myself with two questions:

1. What are the clinical symptoms of the aging process?
   
2. Of these symptoms, which ones do we not yet understand to the extent that it could be stopped?