The aging of the brain slows down due toabsence of DNA polymerase?, known as the Pol gene? as revealed by an investigation in which the Higher Council for Scientific Research (CSIC) has participated and which publishes the journalPLoS ONE. The results suggest the ability to learn and remember at advanced ages in mice is related to the activity of this gene and cell repair.
According to the research,mice lacking the Pol? have an increase in their half-life and better physiological and metabolic conditionsthan control mice. Furthermore, mice deficient in Pol? show a greater capacity for associative learning at advanced ages, as well as a greater potentiation of cortical neuronal circuits, a mechanism that is attributed to be the nervous substrate of theability to learn and remember.
But why is it? Electrophysiological studies supported by biochemical and molecular analyzes carried out during the investigation indicate thatanimals deficient in this gene have a significantly reduced level of said repair activity (which is prone to the introduction of errors)and oxidative damage to DNA. Also, its mitochondrial activity is more efficient.
Alfonso Fairén, a researcher at the Institute of Neurosciences (a mixed center of the CSIC and the Miguel Hernández University) who has participated in the work, explains that the aging of the organism “is determined by deleterious, universal, progressive and fundamentally irreversible physiological changes, which are associated to cumulative damage to all kinds of molecules, cells, tissues and organs. ” This gradual increase in the level of damage increases the probability of developing pathologies.
