{"id":29011,"date":"2024-12-26T05:07:27","date_gmt":"2024-12-25T23:37:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=29011"},"modified":"2025-04-08T23:50:10","modified_gmt":"2025-04-08T18:20:10","slug":"mitochondrial-dna-mutations-and-age-related-muscle-loss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/mitochondrial-dna-mutations-and-age-related-muscle-loss\/","title":{"rendered":"Mitochondrial DNA Mutations and Age-Related Muscle Loss"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><strong>What are Mitochondria?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Definition<\/strong>: Mitochondria are <strong>membrane-bound organelles<\/strong> present in the cytoplasm of most eukaryotic cells, often called the <strong>&#8220;powerhouses&#8221; of the cell<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Maternal inheritance<\/strong>: Mitochondria are inherited <strong>exclusively from the mother<\/strong> via the egg cell.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Key functions:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Energy production<\/strong>: Generate <strong>adenosine triphosphate (ATP)<\/strong>, the primary energy carrier required for muscle contraction, protein synthesis, and cell division.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Cellular respiration<\/strong>: Facilitates the breakdown of food into energy in the form of ATP.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Regulating cell death<\/strong>: Control <strong>apoptosis<\/strong>, ensuring the maintenance of healthy tissues.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA)<\/strong>: Contains its DNA, which is prone to mutations that significantly affect cellular functions.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Key Findings of the Study<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Deletion mutation\u2019s role<\/strong>: Deletion mutations in mtDNA reduce its size and functionality, gradually <strong>eroding mitochondrial efficiency<\/strong>.\n<ul>\n<li>These mutated mtDNA molecules <strong>outcompete healthy ones<\/strong>, leading to a decline in ATP production.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Chimeric genes<\/strong>: Deletion mutations create <strong>chimeric genes<\/strong> by fusing different mitochondrial genes, forming abnormal sequences.\n<ul>\n<li>Chimeric genes disrupt mtDNA expression, accelerating mitochondrial dysfunction and muscle degradation.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Age-related changes<\/strong>: Older individuals exhibit a <strong>two-fold increase in chimeric mitochondrial mRNA<\/strong>, correlating with biological ageing.\n<ul>\n<li>Mutations also affect <strong>brain and muscle tissues<\/strong>, emphasizing their systemic impact on ageing.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Biomarkers for biological ageing<\/strong>: <strong>mtDNA deletion mutations<\/strong> and <strong>chimeric mRNA<\/strong> are key indicators of biological ageing.\n<ul>\n<li>Understanding these markers could pave the way for therapies to <strong>prevent or repair mutations<\/strong>, delaying age-related muscle loss.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Source: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/sci-tech\/science\/why-do-we-lose-muscle-mass-with-age-scientists-find-one-factor\/article69021616.ece\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">TH<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What are Mitochondria? Definition: Mitochondria are membrane-bound organelles present in the cytoplasm of most eukaryotic cells, often called the &#8220;powerhouses&#8221; of the cell. Maternal inheritance: Mitochondria are inherited exclusively from the mother via the egg cell. Key functions: Energy production: Generate adenosine triphosphate (ATP), the primary energy carrier required for muscle contraction, protein synthesis, and &#8230; <a title=\"Mitochondrial DNA Mutations and Age-Related Muscle Loss\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/mitochondrial-dna-mutations-and-age-related-muscle-loss\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Mitochondrial DNA Mutations and Age-Related Muscle Loss\" target=\"_blank\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":29012,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-29011","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29011","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29011"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29011\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29012"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}