Reason why women live longer than men
‘Cells has fewer harmful flaws’
The reason why women tend to live longer than men could be because a crucial part of their cells has fewer harmful flaws than men, a new study suggests.
Researchers have found that faults in a part of the “engine rooms” of cells known as the mitochondria have a greater effect on men than women.
That’s because of a quirk of evolution their make-up or DNA is inherited solely from the mother and so is only screened by natural selection for mutations harmful to women.
Any that are damaging to men but not women slip through the net and slowly over time undermine the health of male cells.
“While children receive copies of most of their genes from both their mothers and fathers, they only receive mitochondrial genes from their mothers,” said lead scientist Dr Damian Dowling, from Monash University in Australia.
“This means that evolution’s quality control process, known as natural selection, only screens the quality of mitochondrial genes in mothers.
“If a mitochondrial mutation occurs that harms fathers, but has no effect on mothers, this mutation will slip through the gaze of natural selection, unnoticed.
“Over thousands of generations, many such mutations have accumulated that harm only males, while leaving females unscathed.”
Co-researcher Dr David Clancy from the Faculty of Health and Medicine at Lancaster University said this is a major advance in biology.
“We show that Mother’s Curse is much broader in its effects on male life history than previously envisaged, resulting in the build-up of mutations that cause males to age faster, and live shorter lives than females.
“These findings …offer a new and compelling explanation to one of life’s greatest puzzles – why the female of many species, including humans, live longer than the males. “
The evidence emerged from studies of male and female fruit flies.
The study appears in the latest issue of the journal Current Biology.
It found that genetic variation across mitochondria was a reliable predictor of life expectancy in male, but not female, flies.
Most inherited DNA, comprising the majority of genes, is wrapped up in the nucleus at a cell’s heart.
The mitochondria have their own separate DNA, which is also passed down to offspring – but only by mothers.
In earlier research, Dr Dowling’s team linked the maternal inheritance of mitochondria to male infertility.
“Together, our research shows that the mitochondria are hot spots for mutations affecting male health,” said the doctor.
“What we seek to do now is investigate the genetic mechanisms that males might arm themselves with to nullify the effects of these harmful mutations and remain healthy.”
The average life expectancy for women in the UK is 82.1 compared with 78.1 in men.
Around the world there are nine times as many women over the age of 100 than there are men.
Katherine Jackson regains guardianship of her grandchildren
Katherine Jackson said she had been resting at a spa under doctor’s orders, Michael Jackson’s mother Katherine has been re-instated as guardian of his three children by a court in Los Angeles.
She will share custody with their cousin TJ, who was made temporary guardian last week after the 82-year-old was reported missing.
She had not had contact with her grandchildren for ten days, but was later found at a spa in Arizona.
A hearing on 22 August will decide if the arrangement will be made permanent.
Tito Jackson Jr, the 34-year-old son of Michael’s brother Tito, stepped in as guardian for Prince Michael, 15, Paris, 14 and 10 year-old Blanket.
However, his lawyer Charles Shultz said he “in no way was trying to displace his grandmother” as “they respect each other”.
Under the new agreement, TJ Jackson remains as co-guardian, with control over the staff and day-to-day operations of the family home.
Perry Sanders Jr, Katherine Jackson’s lawyer, has said the arrangement will allow his client to focus on the children’s upbringing and not on financial or logistics issues.
The co-guardianship arrangement would also allow either adult to serve as sole guardian if the other were no longer able to serve
In a sworn statement, Katherine Jackson said: “I am, and have been, very close with my grandson TJ and have relied on him to help me raise Prince, Paris and Blanket since the death of their father.
“While I was away, I assumed that (the children) would be secure and safe in the hands of the person who had essentially been acting as an informal co-guardian on many matters with me since my appointment as guardian.”
The Jackson family have been involved in legal and financial disputes since the singer’s sudden death in June 2009.
His will left nothing to his siblings and last week several of them signed a letter claiming it was a fake, calling on executors of the estate to resign.
However Jermaine Jackson withdrew his support for the letter on Wednesday and issued a plea on Twitter for peace in the family.
He wrote that the family is still raw from Michael Jackson’s death, and his mother has endured incredible stress and pressures since then.
No communication
Katherine Jackson returned to the family compound near Los Angeles last week after publicly denying rumours she had been kidnapped by some of her adult children.
She said she was unaware she had even been reported missing during her stay at the luxury spa in Tucson, Arizona last month, from where she said was unable to communicate with the outside world.
Katherine Jackson said she was told her grandchildren Prince, Blanket and Paris Jackson were fine
Ms Jackson claims she was not allowed access to a phone or her iPad after being sent there following doctor’s orders to rest, but was told that the kids were fine.
Court documents revealed that she had only learned she was the subject of a search when she accidentally heard a TV report.
“While there was a telephone in my room, the telephone was not functioning and I could not dial out,” she said in the documents.
“In addition, there was no picture on the television in my room,” she added, and said she had repeatedly asked to have the TV fixed.
“One morning I woke up to the sound of the television,” she said. “While there was no picture, I heard a broadcast that stated I was missing.”
‘Bunch of lies’
Katherine Jackson made a statement to ABC News before she left Tucson, seated with her children Randy, Janet and Rebbie next to her, denying that she had been prevented from leaving.
“My children would never do a thing to me like that, holding me against my will,” she said. “It’s very stupid for people to think that.”
She also said she was devastated she had lost guardianship of her grandchildren “based on a bunch of lies.”
Superior Court Judge Mitchell Beckloff said an investigator who looked into the children’s care found the late singer’s mother was an excellent guardian and the children love her.
Michael Jackson died aged 50 from an overdose of the surgical anaesthetic propofol.
His former doctor Conrad Murray was jailed for four years in November, after being convicted of the singer’s involuntary manslaughter.
New ways viruses affect human immune response now found ‘TCD scientists discover’
Scanning electron micrograph of HIV-1, colored green, budding from a cultured lymphocyte. TCD Dublin right.
New ways that viruses manipulate the human immune response have been revealed in a research paper just published in Nature involving TCD scientists. Dr Orla Mulhern and Professor Andrew Bowie, School of Biochemistry and Immunology based in the Trinity Biomedical Sciences Institute were part of the multi-disciplinary, multi-centre study comprising immunologists, virologists, biochemists and bioinformaticians from across Europe.
This research is the most comprehensive study to date analysing strategies used by over 30 viruses to target defence networks in human cells, and provides many new insights into how viruses seek to avoid and weaken the immune response. The research findings could ultimately lead to the development of broad and specific antiviral therapies and new ways to treat patients with infectious diseases.
Scientists at the Centre for Molecular Medicine of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (CeMM) gathered 70 viral genes known to modulate the immune response from collaborators across Europe, including Trinity, and systematically inserted these genes into human cells. The genes were derived from 30 different viruses, including poxviruses, herpesviruses, influenza virus and hepatitis C virus.
They then used mass spectrometry to identify all the human proteins targeted by the viral protein products of the inserted genes, and bioinformatics to comprehensively analyse the viral-human protein interactions. Collaborating labs, including Trinity, then verified and validated some of the most exciting new viral-human interactions discovered.
Commenting on the significance of the research, Professor Bowie, Head of Immunology, School of Biochemistry and Immunology, TCD stated: “The data shows that viruses target a much wider array of cellular processes than was previously anticipated. At least some of these cellular processes will have important but previously unrecognised anti-viral roles.
Thus follow-on studies in our lab and others will reveal new anti-viral immune defences operating in human cells. Also since we could identify both common and unique targets for viruses in cells, future work will also help towards designing antiviral therapies both for specific viruses and for broad classes of viruses.”
London publishing Group Lafferty’s to create 40 jobs in Mayo
London-based research and publishing company Lafferty Group is to create 40 jobs in Co Mayo over the next three years
The group is locating key educational and publishing activities for the global banking industry in Westport, backed by IDA Ireland.
The move will see the research and content division of the International Academy of Retail Banking (IARB) locate in the Mayo town.
A new element to the Lafferty Group, IARB provides professional education programmes and examinations for the retail banking sector, and also functions as an international professional body for retail bankers.
“Specialist retail banking education is not provided anywhere in the world – despite the fact that retail banking is the main source of bank profits,” said group chairman Michael Lafferty.
“The IARB has been created in the belief that retail banking should be a profession, like accountancy and law and offers similar professional education programmes and examinations. The guiding philosophy of the IARB is that banks should get away from pushing products at customers and instead focus on the overall customer relationship.”
The academy already has clients in more than 20 countries around the world. Its faculty consists of current and former retail bankers, card and payments executives, and academics from across the globe.
The academy offers a mixture of open courses and classroom tuition within banks.
“This announcement by the Lafferty Group is great news for Mayo and for the Western region,” Taoiseach Enda Kenny said. “The region offers excellent opportunities to companies locating here. Our talented and flexible workforce, which is of particular interest to service providers, is one of the many strengths that makes Ireland’s offering unique.”
Lafferty Group was set up more than 30 years ago by Michael Lafferty, a Roscommon native.
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