Secret to long life unlocked? Naked mole-rat’s DNA repair mechanism offers promising longevity clues
Posted on: Oct 10, 2025 22:20 IST | Posted by: Livemint
A young consider investigating the sinful length of service of the defenseless mole-rat has identified an evolved DNA repair mechanism unique to the species. These bizarre, burrow-dwelling rodents boast a maximum lifespan of nearly 40 years, making them the world's longest-lived rodent known to science.
The findings, recently published in the journal Science, offer potential insights into why naked mole-rats exhibit remarkable resistance to a wide spectrum of age-related illnesses. The animals are naturally immune to cancer, exhibit no measurable deterioration of the brain and spinal cord, and are resistant to arthritis. This unique resilience has made them a subject of intense scientific scrutiny.
The research, led by a team from Tonji University in Shanghai, China, specifically focused on the natural process of DNA repair within the body’s cells. When genetic material is damaged, an undamaged DNA strand is typically used as a template to fix the break.
The study pinpointed a particular protein involved in the mole-rat's damage-sensing and repair system, suggesting that this highly efficient repair capability is the root cause of their extended, disease-free lives.
Commenting on the breakthrough, Professor Gabriel Balmus, who studies DNA repair and ageing at the University of Cambridge, described the discovery as exciting and merely "the tip of the iceberg" in fully understanding the animals' extraordinarily long lives.
"You can think of cGAS as a biological Lego piece - the same basic shape in humans and naked mole-rats, but in the mole-rat version a few connectors are flipped, allowing it to assemble an entirely different structure and function," said Balmus.
He explained that over millions of years of evolution, naked mole-rats appear to have "rewired" this cellular pathway and "used it to their advantage".
"This finding raises fundamental questions: how did evolution reprogram the same protein to act in reverse? What changed? And is this an isolated case or part of a broader evolutionary pattern?"
"I think if we could reverse-engineer the naked mole-rat's biology," said Prof Balmus, "we might bring some much-needed therapies for an ageing society."
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