Ageing hinders development of cancer, finds study

Sep 28, 2019

New Delhi, Sep 29 (ANI): Age can pose as a hindrance to development and further progression of cancer cells, a new study has found. The findings of this study published in the journal Aging Cell, has found that human ageing processes may hinder cancer development. Ageing is one of the biggest risk factors for cancer. However, the biological mechanisms behind this link are still unclear. Each cell in the human body is specialised to carry out certain tasks and will only need to express certain genes. Gene expression is the process by which specific genes are activated to produce a required protein. Gene expression analyses have been used to study cancer and ageing, but only a few studies have investigated the relationship between gene expression changes in these two processes. Normally, a healthy cell can divide in a controlled manner. In contrast, senescent or 'sleeping' cells have lost their ability to divide. As we age, the number of senescent cells in our bodies increase, which then drive many age-related processes and diseases. These overlapping gene sets were related to several processes, mainly cell cycle and the immune system. Moreover, cellular senescence changed in the same direction as ageing and in the opposite direction of cancer signatures. Researchers believe that the changes in ageing and cellular senescence might relate to a decrease in cell proliferation, while cancer changes shift towards an increase in cell division.