A new study at Tel Aviv University shows that caffeine and alcohol affect cellular aging, the stability of the genome and the probability of getting cancer
In the photo: standing from right to left: Dr. Gal Hagit Romano, Yaniv Harari, PhD student, sitting: Prof. Martin Kopeik Photo: Courtesy of Tel Aviv University
Caffeine and alcohol affect cellular aging, the stability of the genome and the probability of getting cancer - according to a new study by Prof. Martin Kopeik, Dr. Gal Hagit Romano, Yaniv Harari, Dr. Assaf Gottlieb and other researchers from Tel Aviv University.
The research, published this week in the journal Public Library of Science - Genetics, is based on the revolutionary work of 2004 Nobel Prize laureate Prof. Elizabeth Blackburn. Prof. Blackburn proved that mental stress is in accordance with short telomeres. The telomeres are the ends of the chromosomes, and their job is to protect the genome in each and every cell. The telomeres are a kind of "biological clock" of the cell, and they shorten as the cell ages. Cancer cells actively lengthen the cell's telomeres, so that they "live forever" and can continue to divide until no end. In Prof. Elizabeth Blackburn's research, it was found that women who have experienced mental stress for several years have shorter telomeres - and therefore more "old" cells - than women who have experienced standard stress.
"The assumption of the authors of the article was that as a result of mental stress, physiological changes occur that cause the shortening of telomeres, changes such as oxidative stress," explains Dr. Gal Hagit Romano from Prof. Kopeik's laboratory. "According to this assumption, we grew yeast cells under oxidative stress and tested its effect on telomere length. But surprisingly, telomere length did not change. So we decided to grow the cells under other stress conditions. Most of the conditions we created did not cause any change in the length of the telomeres, but the amazing result was that it was precisely substances that we are exposed to in our daily lives that affected the length of the telomeres. In fact, the substances that were found to have the most significant effect on telomere length were caffeine and alcohol. It was found that a low concentration of caffeine (a concentration similar to that found in a short espresso) caused a significant shortening of the length of the telomeres, while a low concentration of alcohol (5%-7%) caused a disturbance in the system that controls the length of the telomeres and lengthened them significantly."
Thanks to the team of researchers' groundbreaking discovery, scientists around the world will now be able to combine environmental manipulations with genetic manipulations in order to study the genetic network responsible for maintaining telomere length. Since telomeres are known to be of crucial importance in cellular aging and cancer development, this discovery has far-reaching research and medical implications.
"Research has real medical implications," says doctoral student Yaniv Harari. "Due to the importance of telomeres in maintaining the stability of the genome, their length is controlled by a very complex mechanism. More than 400 genes affect telomere length in order to create a stable system that can cope with environmental changes. When the stability of the system is disturbed, the length of the telomeres is disturbed and this can lead to genome instability, accelerated aging and the development of various diseases. Our discovery, according to which even simple substances such as caffeine and alcohol affect the length of telomeres, can allow us to carry out various manipulations on the length of telomeres, and in the future also offer a salve and preventive medicine for various diseases such as cancer."
The new research is the result of the collaboration between Prof. Martin Kopik's laboratory in the Faculty of Life Sciences, Prof. Rodad Sharan, Prof. Eitan Rupin, Dr. Assaf Gottlieb and Prof. Ron Shamir from the Labatnik School of Computer Science at Tel Aviv University, as well as Prof. Dana Parr from Columbia University in the USA.
The article is based on a press release from the Tel Aviv University spokeswoman.
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Neither downloads nor uploads. I join the respondents. The writer of the news will you please explain? Is coffee good for us or vice versa?
Thanks in advance.
I guess its source is conspiracy sites that don't get any help from the state as a matter of course, and think that everyone wants to harm health. We will all pay the price with the health of our teeth.
point
What is your source of dental damage from fluoridation?
From the article it can be understood that caffeine shortens life expectancy and alcohol prolongs it
Let them check the fluoride that is injected into our water. It has been known for years that it does not help caries at all as they tried to do on us and is even harmful to teeth and bones.
D!
Long telomeres are not necessarily cancerous.
The causality here is the opposite: the cancer causes the telomeres to lengthen and not the other way around.
When the telomeres are long and the cell is not cancerous - that's good.
incidentally. I don't see how it is possible to draw far-reaching conclusions about humans (actual damage to cell division) from experiments done on yeast; After all, yeasts are very different organisms from humans. (Yeasts are fungi according to my memory.)
Ignore the title, as the title does not imply what is written below.
Caffeine is a natural substance like lettuce and radish. But maybe you test caffeine and then it's really different.
Caffeine is an unnatural substance that throws the body out of balance
Everything that should not be in the body is better not to enter, especially not a strong and addictive substance like caffeine
Coffee also raises blood pressure in some people and may cause high and dangerous blood pressure
The coffee companies and importers operate a lobby of advertising agencies that drips news on the news sites that coffee is healthy
Plants produce caffeine as a neurotoxin against insects
Don't understand anything from the article?? Is coffee in the morning positive or negative...? Does anyone have an answer??
As the main advertiser of Osem and Coca-Cola, Elit Strauss and all the rest (the heavy monopoly) wrote, most of the food he advertises is poison...
Anonymous, not that I understand though
Telomeres that are too long are cancerous and never die
And too short die and enough
And so, as it were, coffee and beer prolong them by maintaining a balance between them.
Something like that?
I didn't understand why coffee helps stabilize the genome if it actually shortens the telomeres as described in the article?