Fast-Aging Disease Is Traced to Bad Gene
From Times Staff and Wire Reports
Scientists have identified the cause of Werner syndrome, a rare accelerated aging disease whose sufferers prematurely develop gray hair, wrinkled skin, cataracts, cancer and heart disease, dying in their 40s.
Researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla reported in the journal Science that patients with Werner syndrome couldn’t properly replicate the ends of their chromosomes due to a defective gene, WRN. The patients’ genetic material becomes damaged and body cells die or malfunction.
