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Comment by Out_of_Characte | Hacker News Reader

So far, most age related medicine only come in two forms, those that reduce cell division which improves longevity, and those that increase cell division which improves youthfullness and cancer. Telomeres seem to be a natural counter to reduce aging cells from becoming cancer.

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It's not so simple. Long and short telomeres can lead to cancer.

Short telomeres or their loss can lead to genome rearrangements and other chromosomal problems. This can set the stage for oncogenesis.

Long telomeres can allow cells to continue to divide many times. This also can lead to an accumulation of oncogenic drivers. https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2300503

As with many things in biology, maintaining balance is important. Many factors are at play. The message that longer telomeres are better is beguiling, but nature would not make such a simple mistake.

Yes, nature intentionally made telomeres shorten in several animals including humans. Genetic variety results in an increased chance of a species surviving rapidly changing environments. Eliminating the longer lived increases the genetic variety within a species by favoring breeding among the shorter lived. Telomere shortening results in the elimination of the longer lived.

Everytime cells divide they have an increased risk of becoming cancer cells. But not allowing cells to divide is certain death.

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