This animation seeks to describe a theoretical approach to treating age-related mitochondrial mutation, potentially impacting parkinson’s disease and age-related fatigue. It is designed to appeal to a broad audience in order to generate awareness of the potential avenue for research. As a result, it had to be built not only with rigorously accurate characterizations of molecular and subcellular events, but to present these concepts in a way that optimizes retention and recall in research-level and lay-audiences alike. It discusses the concept of reactive oxygen species-induced mitochondrial mutation, and how this can cause mitochondria to poison their host cells. This can lead to degenerative disorders commonly associated with aging. The theoretical approach to repairing these mutations is to introduce a “backup copy” of mitochondrial genes into the safer environment of the cell nucleus, allowing existing molecular machinery to resupply mitochondria with replacement parts as needed.
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A Proposed Treatment for Mitochondrial Mutation
