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originally posted by: intrptr
a reply to: Bedlam
Your cells have quite a few DNA repair mechanisms. Your DNA is damaged constantly. Since DNA has a good bit of redundancy in the coding, these repair enzymes can quite often strip out and repair damaged bits.
I know. On earth, inside the magnetic field, under the atmosphere. Whole different ball game in space, on Mars, outside these protections.
Now, research led by scientists at Harvard Medical School (HMS) reveals a critical step in a molecular chain of events that allows cells to mend their broken DNA.
The findings, to be published March 24 in Science, offer a critical insight into how and why the body's ability to fix DNA dwindles over time and point to a previously unknown role for the signaling molecule NAD as a key regulator of protein-to-protein interactions in DNA repair. NAD, identified a century ago, is already known for its role as a controller of cell-damaging oxidation.
Additionally, experiments conducted in mice show that treatment with the NAD precursor NMN mitigates age-related DNA damage and wards off DNA damage from radiation exposure.
Read more at: phys.org...