Naked mole rats reveal genetic secrets to longevity

They’re strange, bald, subterranean rodents that look like sausages with teeth, and we’ve just uncovered the genetic secret to their longevity.

A new study of bizarre naked mole rats shows that these animals have evolved DNA repair mechanisms that may explain their longevity.

These burrow-dwelling rats have a maximum lifespan of nearly 40 years, making them the longest-living rodents in the world.

New research published in the journal Science may shed light on why naked mole rats are resistant to a variety of age-related diseases.

Because animals are resistant to cancer, deterioration of the brain and spinal cord, and arthritis, many scientists want to know more about how their bodies work.

The study, led by a team from Tonji University in Shanghai, China, focused on DNA repair, a natural process in our body’s cells. When a strand of DNA, our genetic building block, is damaged, a mechanism is triggered where another undamaged DNA strand is used as a template to repair the break.

The focus of this study was on specific proteins involved in damage detection and repair systems.

One of the substances produced when cells detect damage is a protein called c-GAS. It plays several roles, but what these scientists were interested in was that in humans, it disrupts and disrupts the process of DNA being put back together.

Scientists believe this interference may promote cancer and shorten lifespan.

But in naked mole rats, the researchers found that the same protein plays the opposite role. This helps the body repair DNA strands and keeps each cell’s genetic code intact.

Professor Gabriel Balmus researches DNA repair and aging at the University of Cambridge. He said the discovery was “very exciting” and “the tip of the iceberg” in understanding why these animals live so long.

“You can think of cGAS as biological Lego pieces. The basic shape is the same for humans and naked mole rats, but in the mole rat version, a few connectors can be flipped to assemble completely different structures and functions.”

Professor Balmers explained that after millions of years of evolution, naked mole rats appear to have reconnected the same pathways and “used this to their advantage”.

“This discovery raises fundamental questions: How has evolution reprogrammed the same protein to work in the reverse direction? What has changed? And is this an isolated case or part of a broader evolutionary pattern?”

Most importantly, scientists want to know what they can learn from these rodents to improve human health and extend quality of life as they age.

Professor Balmus said, “If we can reverse engineer the biology of naked mole rats, we could bring much-needed treatments to our aging society.”