Polyamines in aging and disease

Nadège Minois¹, Didac Carmona-Gutierrez², Frank Madeo²

¹University of St Andrews, School of Biology, Bute Building, St Andrews, Fife, KY16 9TS, UK
²Institute of Molecular Biosciences, University of Graz, 8010 Graz, Austria

Received: August 13, 2011Accepted: August 16, 2011Published: August 21, 2011

Copyright: © 2011 Minois et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Abstract

Polyamines are polycations that interact with negatively charged molecules such as DNA, RNA and proteins. They play multiple roles in cell growth, survival and proliferation. Changes in polyamine levels have been associated with aging and diseases. Their levels decline continuously with age and polyamine (spermidine or high-polyamine diet) supplementation increases life span in model organisms. Polyamines have also been involved in stress resistance. On the other hand, polyamines are increased in cancer cells and are a target for potential chemotherapeutic agents. In this review, we bring together these various results and draw a picture of the state of our knowledge on the roles of polyamines in aging, stress and diseases.