Research
I work mainly in Aging and Oxidative Stress research line. More precisely,
since my PhD student period, I’m interested in why females live longer than males and the role of
oxidative stress in the different longevity between genders. This was the principal topic of my
European Doctorate, and we found that estrogens protect
females against oxidative stress because it induces the
up-regulation of longevity-associated gene expression such
as antioxidant genes. According to these results, we
investigated the role of estrogenic compounds such as
phytoestrogens to mimic the antioxidant effects of
estrogens, to avoid the possible undesirable side effects of
estradiol. Therefore, I did a pre-doctoral stay in London at
The Centre for Cardiovascular Biology and Medicine at
King’s College, London. There my studies on the effect of
soya administration in antioxidant enzyme levels in aorta
and liver form rats were supervised by an expert in
cardiovascular research and cell signalling, Prof. Giovanni
E. Mann. We found that rats fed on a soya rich diet had
lower blood pressure and higher gene expression of
antioxidant proteins and e-NOS.
During my post-doctoral period, I
have been studying the mechanism by which estrogenic
compounds act as antioxidant in physiological/nutritionally
relevant concentrations.
According to this research line,
I’m also very interested in the longevity-associated
genes and its possible
modification. Studying this topic, I went to the Centro
Nacional de Investigaciones Oncológicas in Madrid, doing a
post-doctoral stay with a specialist in telomerase and
telomeres, Dr. María A. Blasco, and a specialist in tumour
suppression, Dr. Manuel Serrano. Fruit of this
collaboration, we published in Nature that mice
over-expressing Arf/p53 had a lower incidence of cancer and live considerably longer than wild
type mice. These
observations extend the protective role of Arf/p53 to
ageing, revealing a previously unknown anti-aging mechanism
and providing a rationale for the co-evolution of cancer
resistance and longevity.
Selected
Publications
Tomás-Loba
A, Flores I, Fernández-Marcos PJ, Cayuela ML, Maraver A,
Tejera A, Borrás C, Matheu A, Klatt P, Flores JM, Viña J,
Serrano M, Blasco MA. Telomerase
reverse transcriptase delays aging in cancer-resistant mice.
Cell. 2008 Nov 14;135(4):609-22.
Tresguerres
JA, Kireev R, Tresguerres AF, Borras C, Vara E,
Ariznavarreta C. Molecular
mechanisms involved in the hormonal prevention of aging in
the rat. J Steroid Biochem Mol Biol. 2008
Feb;108(3-5):318-26.
Viña J,
Sastre J, Pallardó FV, Gambini J, Borrás C. Modulation
of longevity-associated genes by estrogens or phytoestrogens.
Biol Chem. 2008 Mar;389(3):273-7.
Viña J,
Gomez-Cabrera MC, Borras C. Fostering
antioxidant defences: up-regulation of antioxidant genes or
antioxidant supplementation? Br J Nutr. 2007 Oct;98
Suppl 1:S36-40.
Vallés
SL, Borrás C, Gambini J, Furriol J, Ortega A, Sastre J,
Pallardó FV, Viña J. Oestradiol
or genistein rescues neurons from amyloid beta-induced cell
death by inhibiting activation of p38. Aging Cell.
2008 Jan;7(1):112-8..
Matheu A,
Maraver A, Klatt P, Flores I, Garcia-Cao I, Borras C, Flores
JM, Viña J, Blasco MA, Serrano M. Delayed
ageing through damage protection by the Arf/p53 pathway.
Nature. 2007 Jul 19;448(7151):375-9.
Borras C,
Gambini J, Vina J. Mitochondrial
oxidant generation is involved in determining why females
live longer than males. Front Biosci. 2007 Jan
1;12:1008-13.
Borrás
C, Gambini J, Gómez-Cabrera MC, Sastre J, Pallardó FV,
Mann GE, Viña J. Genistein, a soy
isoflavone, up-regulates expression of antioxidant genes:
involvement of estrogen receptors, ERK1/2, and NFkappaB.
FASEB J. 2006 Oct;20(12):2136-8.
Mahn K,
Borrás C, Knock GA, Taylor P, Khan IY, Sugden D, Poston L,
Ward JP, Sharpe RM, Viña J, Aaronson PI, Mann GE.
Dietary soy isoflavone induced increases in antioxidant and
eNOS gene expression lead to improved endothelial function
and reduced blood pressure in vivo. FASEB J. 2005
Oct;19(12):1755-7.
Borrás
C, Gambini J, Gómez-Cabrera MC, Sastre J, Pallardó FV,
Mann GE, Viña J. 17beta-oestradiol
up-regulates longevity-related, antioxidant enzyme
expression via the ERK1 and ERK2[MAPK]/NFkappaB cascade.
Aging Cell. 2005 Jun;4(3):113-8.
Viña J,
Borrás C, Gambini J, Sastre J, Pallardó FV. Why
females live longer than males? Importance of the
upregulation of longevity-associated genes by oestrogenic
compounds. FEBS Lett. 2005 May 9;579(12):2541-5. Epub
2005 Apr 14.
Borrás
C, Sastre J, García-Sala D, Lloret A, Pallardó FV, Viña
J. Mitochondria from females
exhibit higher antioxidant gene expression and lower
oxidative damage than males. Free Radic Biol Med.
2003 Mar 1;34(5):546-52.
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