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Ren P, Zhang J, Vijg J. Somatic mutations in aging and disease. GeroScience 2024; 46:5171-5189. [PMID: 38488948 PMCID: PMC11336144 DOI: 10.1007/s11357-024-01113-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/11/2023] [Accepted: 02/27/2024] [Indexed: 03/17/2024] Open
Abstract
Time always leaves its mark, and our genome is no exception. Mutations in the genome of somatic cells were first hypothesized to be the cause of aging in the 1950s, shortly after the molecular structure of DNA had been described. Somatic mutation theories of aging are based on the fact that mutations in DNA as the ultimate template for all cellular functions are irreversible. However, it took until the 1990s to develop the methods to test if DNA mutations accumulate with age in different organs and tissues and estimate the severity of the problem. By now, numerous studies have documented the accumulation of somatic mutations with age in normal cells and tissues of mice, humans, and other animals, showing clock-like mutational signatures that provide information on the underlying causes of the mutations. In this review, we will first briefly discuss the recent advances in next-generation sequencing that now allow quantitative analysis of somatic mutations. Second, we will provide evidence that the mutation rate differs between cell types, with a focus on differences between germline and somatic mutation rate. Third, we will discuss somatic mutational signatures as measures of aging, environmental exposure, and activities of DNA repair processes. Fourth, we will explain the concept of clonally amplified somatic mutations, with a focus on clonal hematopoiesis. Fifth, we will briefly discuss somatic mutations in the transcriptome and in our other genome, i.e., the genome of mitochondria. We will end with a brief discussion of a possible causal contribution of somatic mutations to the aging process.
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Affiliation(s)
- Peijun Ren
- Center for Single-Cell Omics, School of Public Health, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, 200025, China.
| | - Jie Zhang
- Center for Single-Cell Omics, School of Public Health, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, 200025, China
| | - Jan Vijg
- Center for Single-Cell Omics, School of Public Health, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, 200025, China.
- Department of Genetics, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY, 10461, USA.
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Chatsirisupachai K, de Magalhães JP. Somatic mutations in human ageing: New insights from DNA sequencing and inherited mutations. Ageing Res Rev 2024; 96:102268. [PMID: 38490496 DOI: 10.1016/j.arr.2024.102268] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/23/2023] [Revised: 02/19/2024] [Accepted: 03/06/2024] [Indexed: 03/17/2024]
Abstract
The accumulation of somatic mutations is a driver of cancer and has long been associated with ageing. Due to limitations in quantifying mutation burden with age in non-cancerous tissues, the impact of somatic mutations in other ageing phenotypes is unclear. Recent advances in DNA sequencing technologies have allowed the large-scale quantification of somatic mutations in ageing tissues. These studies have revealed a gradual accumulation of mutations in normal tissues with age as well as a substantial clonal expansion driven mostly by cancer-related mutations. Nevertheless, it is difficult to envision how the burden and stochastic nature of age-related somatic mutations identified so far can explain most ageing phenotypes that develop gradually. Studies across species have also found that longer-lived species have lower somatic mutation rates, though these could be due to selective pressures acting on other phenotypes such as perhaps cancer. Recent studies in patients with higher somatic mutation burden and no signs of accelerated ageing further question the role of somatic mutations in ageing. Overall, with a few exceptions like cancer, recent DNA sequencing studies and inherited mutations do not support the idea that somatic mutations accumulating with age drive ageing phenotypes, and the phenotypic role, if any, of somatic mutations in ageing remains unclear.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kasit Chatsirisupachai
- Integrative Genomics of Ageing Group, Institute of Ageing and Chronic Disease, University of Liverpool, Liverpool L7 8TX, UK; European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), Genome Biology Unit, Heidelberg, Germany
| | - João Pedro de Magalhães
- Integrative Genomics of Ageing Group, Institute of Ageing and Chronic Disease, University of Liverpool, Liverpool L7 8TX, UK; Institute of Inflammation and Ageing, University of Birmingham, Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Mindelsohn Way, Birmingham, UK.
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Blagosklonny MV. Hallmarks of cancer and hallmarks of aging. Aging (Albany NY) 2022; 14:4176-4187. [PMID: 35533376 PMCID: PMC9134968 DOI: 10.18632/aging.204082] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/14/2022] [Accepted: 05/02/2022] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
A thought-provoking article by Gems and de Magalhães suggests that canonic hallmarks of aging are superficial imitations of hallmarks of cancer. I took their work a step further and proposed hallmarks of aging based on a hierarchical principle and the hyperfunction theory. To do this, I first reexamine the hallmarks of cancer proposed by Hanahan and Weinberg in 2000. Although six hallmarks of cancer are genuine, they are not hierarchically arranged, i.e., molecular, intra-cellular, cellular, tissue, organismal and extra-organismal. (For example, invasion and angiogenesis are manifestations of molecular alterations on the tissue level; metastasis on the organismal level, whereas cell immortality is observed outside the host). The same hierarchical approach is applicable to aging. Unlike cancer, however, aging is not a molecular disease. The lowest level of its origin is normal intracellular signaling pathways such as mTOR that drive developmental growth and, later in life, become hyperfunctional, causing age-related diseases, whose sum is aging. The key hallmark of organismal aging, from worms to humans, are age-related diseases. In addition, hallmarks of aging can be arranged as a timeline, wherein initial hyperfunction is followed by dysfunction, organ damage and functional decline.
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Omotoso O, Gladyshev VN, Zhou X. Lifespan Extension in Long-Lived Vertebrates Rooted in Ecological Adaptation. Front Cell Dev Biol 2021; 9:704966. [PMID: 34733838 PMCID: PMC8558438 DOI: 10.3389/fcell.2021.704966] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/04/2021] [Accepted: 09/02/2021] [Indexed: 01/21/2023] Open
Abstract
Contemporary studies on aging and longevity have largely overlooked the role that adaptation plays in lifespan variation across species. Emerging evidence indicates that the genetic signals of extended lifespan may be maintained by natural selection, suggesting that longevity could be a product of organismal adaptation. The mechanisms of adaptation in long-lived animals are believed to account for the modification of physiological function. Here, we first review recent progress in comparative biology of long-lived animals, together with the emergence of adaptive genetic factors that control longevity and disease resistance. We then propose that hitchhiking of adaptive genetic changes is the basis for lifespan changes and suggest ways to test this evolutionary model. As individual adaptive or adaptation-linked mutations/substitutions generate specific forms of longevity effects, the cumulative beneficial effect is largely nonrandom and is indirectly favored by natural selection. We consider this concept in light of other proposed theories of aging and integrate these disparate ideas into an adaptive evolutionary model, highlighting strategies in decoding genetic factors of lifespan control.
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Affiliation(s)
- Olatunde Omotoso
- CAS Key Laboratory of Animal Ecology and Conservation Biology, Institute of Zoology, Beijing, China.,University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Vadim N Gladyshev
- Division of Genetics, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States
| | - Xuming Zhou
- CAS Key Laboratory of Animal Ecology and Conservation Biology, Institute of Zoology, Beijing, China
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Blagosklonny MV. Response to the Thought-Provoking Critique of Hyperfunction Theory by Aubrey de Grey. Rejuvenation Res 2021; 24:170-172. [PMID: 33784825 DOI: 10.1089/rej.2021.0018] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/23/2022] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Mikhail V Blagosklonny
- Department of Cell Stress Biology, Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, Elm and Carlton Str, Buffalo, New York, USA
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de Grey ADNJ. Programs, Hyperfunction, and Damage: Why Definitions and Logic Matter So Much in Biogerontology. Rejuvenation Res 2021; 24:83-85. [PMID: 33784821 DOI: 10.1089/rej.2021.0015] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
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Abstract
DNA mutations as a consequence of errors during DNA damage repair, replication, or mitosis are the substrate for evolution. In multicellular organisms, mutations can occur in the germline and also in somatic tissues, where they are associated with cancer and other chronic diseases and possibly with aging. Recent advances in high-throughput sequencing have made it relatively easy to study germline de novo mutations, but in somatic cells, the vast majority of mutations are low-abundant and can be detected only in clonal lineages, such as tumors, or single cells. Here we review recent results on somatic mutations in normal human and animal tissues with a focus on their possible functional consequences.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lei Zhang
- Department of Genetics, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, New York 10461, USA;
| | - Jan Vijg
- Department of Genetics, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, New York 10461, USA;
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Abstract
In the late 19th century, the evolutionary approach to the problem of ageing was initiated by August Weismann, who argued that natural selection was more important for ageing than any physiological mechanism. In the mid-twentieth century, J. B. S. Haldane, P. B. Medawar and G. C. Williams informally argued that the force of natural selection falls with adult age. In 1966, W. D. Hamilton published formal equations that showed mathematically that two 'forces of natural selection' do indeed decline with age, though his analysis was not genetically explicit. Brian Charlesworth then developed the required mathematical population genetics for the evolution of ageing in the 1970's. In the 1980's, experiments using Drosophila showed that the rate of ageing evolves as predicted by Hamilton's 'forces of natural selection'. The discovery of the cessation of ageing late in life in the 1990's was followed by its explanation in terms of evolutionary theory based on Hamilton's forces. Recently, it has been shown that the cessation of ageing can also be manipulated experimentally using Hamilton's 'forces of natural selection'. Despite the success of evolutionary research on ageing, mainstream gerontological research has largely ignored both this work and the opportunity that it provides for effective intervention in ageing.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michael R Rose
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697-2525, USA.
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LAIRD RA, SHERRATT TN. The evolution of senescence through decelerating selection for system reliability. J Evol Biol 2009; 22:974-82. [DOI: 10.1111/j.1420-9101.2009.01709.x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/22/2022]
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Minelli A, Bellezza I, Conte C, Culig Z. Oxidative stress-related aging: A role for prostate cancer? Biochim Biophys Acta Rev Cancer 2008; 1795:83-91. [PMID: 19121370 DOI: 10.1016/j.bbcan.2008.11.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 59] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/15/2008] [Revised: 11/21/2008] [Accepted: 11/26/2008] [Indexed: 11/18/2022]
Abstract
Prostate cancer has the highest prevalence of any non-cutaneous cancer in the human body and essentially all men with circulating androgens will develop microscopic prostate cancer if they live long enough. Aging, considered as an impairment of body functions over time, caused by the accumulation of molecular damage in DNA, proteins and lipids, is also characterized by an increase in intracellular oxidative stress due to the progressive decrease of the intracellular ROS scavenging. The aging damage may eventually appear in age-related health issues, which have a significant impact on the independence, general well-being and morbidity of the elderly. The association of aging with prostate cancer is undisputable as well as the association of aging with oxidative stress. Nevertheless, supportive evidence linking an increase in oxidative stress with prostate cancer is still scarce. This review is a comprehensive, literature-based analysis of the association of human prostate cancer with oxidative stress. The objective was to examine the involvement of reactive oxygen species in the mechanisms of prostatic carcinogenesis since the understanding of risk factors for prostate cancer has practical importance for public health, genetic and nutritional education, and chemoprevention.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alba Minelli
- Dipartimento di Medicina Sperimentale Scienze Biochimiche, Sezione Biochimica Cellulare, Università di Perugia, via del Giochetto, 06123 Perugia, Italy.
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