Global transcriptional downregulation of TREX and nuclear trafficking machinery as pan-senescence phenomena: evidence from human cells and tissues

Abstract

Aging: Slowing down of nucleocytoplasmic trafficking Proteins that move genetic information out of the nucleus and into the rest of the cell may be important in aging, and serve as markers of early-stage cancer. DNA is stored in the cell’s nucleus, and the messages which it encodes must be exported from the nucleus for gene expression. Aging is thought to be linked to a decrease in this export, but the exact mechanism remains unclear. Sung Young Kim, Konkuk University School of Medicine, Seoul, South Korea, and co-workers investigated key nuclear export proteins in healthy, cancerous, and aging cells. They found that nuclear export is strongly decreased in aging cells and shows distinctive patterns in very-early-stage cancer cells. These results shed further light on the cellular basis of aging, and may provide novel biomarkers for early cancer detection.