- Telomeres are regions at the end of chromosomes that protect against DNA damage.
- Telomeres get shorter with every division that a cell undergoes, and the shortening of telomeres is associated with biological aging and age-related conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease.
- A new large study found that shorter telomere length in white blood cells was associated with a greater increase in markers of brain degeneration measured using MRI.
- Shorter telomere length was also associated with a higher risk of dementia, suggesting that longer telomere length could protect against dementia.
Previous studies suggest that shorter telomere length is associated with biological aging of the brain and a greater risk of neurodegenerative conditions. A recent study published in
Changes in these markers of brain structure and function precede clinical symptoms of dementia, and these findings suggest that the association between telomere length and dementia risk may be mediated through these changes in brain structure.
“This is the largest and most in-depth study of telomere length (a marker of biological aging) and brain structure/function. We found links between longer telomeres and larger volumes of the brain (such as the hippocampus) that are affected by dementia. These may explain why/how longer telomeres are protective against dementia.”
— Dr. Anya Topiwala, of Oxford Population Health, part of the University of Oxford, UK, and lead study author
Each of the chromosomes present in the cell nucleus consists of a double-stranded molecule of DNA. The end of each chromosome consists of telomeres, a region made up of repeats of a short DNA sequence (TTAGGG).
These short repeated DNA sequences in the telomere are covered by shelterin proteins. The telomer-shelterin complexes help protect the ends of the chromosome from…
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