A new ‘toolkit’ to repair damaged DNA that can lead to ageing, cancer and Motor Neurone Disease (MND) has been discovered by scientists at the Universities of Sheffield and Oxford.
Published in Nature Communications, the research shows that a protein called TEX264, together with other enzymes, is able to recognise and ‘eat’ toxic proteins that can stick to DNA and cause it to become damaged. An accumulation of broken, damaged DNA can cause cellular ageing, cancer and neurological diseases such as MND.