Loss of the Y chromosome with age leads to premature death in men.
- In the United States, women live an average of five years longer than men.
- At this time, doctors have no way of determining which men suffer from Y chromosome loss.
- The loss of the Y chromosome does not occur in male reproductive cells, so it is not passed on to children of patients who lack it.
As men age, they lose their male sex chromosome in blood cells. This phenomenon is called “mosaic loss of the Y chromosome in the blood (or mLOY)”. According to researchers from the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Virginia (United States), 40% of septuagenarians are affected by this loss of the Y chromosome. Problem: it “is associated with an increased risk of mortality and age-related diseases in men”.
To reach this conclusion, the scientists carried out a study published in the journal Science the 14th of July. As part of this research, the team used state-of-the-art gene editing technology to develop a special mouse model to better understand the effects of Y chromosome loss in the blood.
Increased mortality
According to the results, male mice reconstituted with bone marrow cells lacking the Y chromosome showed increased mortality. Clearly, the loss of the male sex chromosome accelerated the onset of certain pathologies, such as Alzheimer’s disease, and made rodents more prone to scarring of the heart muscle, which led to premature death.
“A prospective study found that mosaic Y chromosome loss in the blood was linked to an increased risk of cardiovascular disease and heart failure-associated mortality. Taken together, these results indicate that this male sex chromosome loss contributes causally to fibrosis, cardiac dysfunction and mortality in humans”, detailed the work.
A potential treatment?
Targeting the effects of Y-chromosome loss could help men live longer, healthier lives, the authors say. Kenneth Walsh, author of the study, specified that a drug, called “pirfenidone”, could treat idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. The treatment in question has already been approved by the Food and Drug Administration. This drug is also being tested to treat heart failure and chronic kidney disease.
The scientist “I believe that this treatment could help counteract the harmful effects of chromosome loss and that men who have lost their Y chromosome may respond particularly well to this drug, as well as to other classes of antifibrotic drugs in development. However, further research is needed to determine this.” can we read in a statement from the university.