DNage, against ageing December 18, 2006

I’ve found a company, DNage that works against DNA damages, that’s how they try to prevent ageing.

DNage is a wholly owned subsidiary of Pharming Group NV. DNage is focused on the development of products for medical and health problems associated with ageing… DNage has been acquired by Pharming in October 2006.

The main figure of the company is Prof J. Hoeijmakers who is a world-renowned scientist working on DNA repair and genome stability. He and his team try to estabilish an explicit connection between ageing and DNA damages-repair mechanisms. They’ve worked out some therapeutic interventions:

Combining DNA repair deficient mice – this ultimately results in more DNA damage accumulation- leads to enhanced premature ageing.

More drastic mutations in the same DNA repair enzyme lead to enhanced rates of ageing.

Analyses of genome wide gene-activity shows remarkable resemblance with normal ageing

In what kind of diseases do they try to help?

• Cockayne Syndrome: characterized by growth failure, impaired development of the nervous system, abnormal sensitivity to sunlight (photosensitivity), and premature aging.
• Trichothiodystrophy: (sulfur-deficient brittle hair) with photosensitivity, ichthyosiform erythroderma (fish-like scales on skin), abnormal finger and toe-nails, progeria-like faces (prematurely aged looking face)…
• Xeroderma Pigmentosum: the body’s normal ability to remove damage caused by ultraviolet (UV) light is deficient.
• Osteoporosis and Diabetes

References:

• Aging and genome maintenance: lessons from the mouse?
• A new, tenth subunit of TFIIH is responsible for the DNA repair syndrome trichothiodystrophy group A.
• Wikipedia

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