Figure 3.

Aging is associated with increased levels of DNA damage, which can be changed into mutations contributing to increased genomic instability, a prerequisite in cancer and many other serious diseases. In normal conditions, DNA damage induces DNA damage response (DDR), which activates cellular pathways to repair the damage, tolerate it or induce programmed cell death. However, aging also affects these pathways lowering the efficacy and accuracy of DDR, increasing the extent of non-repaired and/or misrepaired DNA damage. In fact, faulty DDR may accelerate aging leading to premature aging and progeria syndromes.