Heart disease in heartless microscopic worms
Invertebrate dirt-dwellers can be used to study human disease, biologists relate in Science
What's in a worm? More than we think. In the latest issue of Science, 黑料不打烊 Biology Professor Siegfried Hekimi and his research team explain how scientists can study the impact of a class toxic molecules on human heart disease by using microscopic worms as a model.
The toxic molecules in question are the so-called free radicals or reactive oxygen species (ROS), which attack cellular constituents and damage them through oxidization. This damage is believed to be responsible for the aging process. The 黑料不打烊 team had previously shown that the lifespan of the worm species they studied, Caenorhabditis elegans, could be dramatically increased by mutations that lower ROS damage.
Now the 黑料不打烊 researchers examined one type of damaging oxidation in particular - that of low density lipoprotein particles (LDL). The oxidation of LDL is largely responsible for the development of atherosclerosis, a disease that remains one of the greatest killers, especially in the aging population.
"Worms are an extremely powerful system for identifying and understanding new genes involved in a particular process," says Hekimi. "The fact that we can study the process of LDL formation and oxidation in worms should allow us to identify new ways to control LDL levels and LDL oxidation and thus to alleviate disease."
The biologists also demonstrate for the first time in intact animals, i.e. in live worms, that free radicals are not only toxic but also plays important physiological roles. "We show the impact of free radicals on genetic pathways that are important in the development of cancer," explains Hekimi. "This had previously been hypothesized based only on in vitro work, that is on cells in a Petri dish. Our studies with live worms represent a major breakthrough."
