British scientists say they've found a gene in fruit flies that allows a fast and effective way to investigate important aspects of human aging.

Lynne Cox at the University of Oxford and Robert Saunders at The Open University said they identified the fruit fly equivalent of the key human aging gene known as WRN. They found flies with damage to that gene share important features with people suffering from the rapid aging condition known as Werner syndrome, who also have damage to the WRN gene.

In particular, the DNA is unstable in the flies that have the damaged version of the gene and the chromosomes are often altered. In patients with Werner syndrome, that genome instability leads to cancer. Cells derived from Werner syndrome patients are extremely sensitive to a drug often used to treat cancers: the research shows the flies that have the damaged gene are killed by even very low doses of that drug.

The research appears in the journal Aging Cell.

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