Aging, increasing genomic entropy, and neurodegenerative disease.
The genome, as biologic information, can be conceptualized in terms of entropy. The second law of thermodynamics dictates that entropy must increase over time. Consequently, aging can be viewed as increasing genomic entropy. Genetic instability is the biophysical correlate of increasing genomic entropy. Rates of increasing genomic entropy can be determined from age-specific mortality rate dynamics (e.g., Parkinson's disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis). These observations are consistent with a model of neurodegenerative disease as a manifestation of increasing genomic entropy with aging.
Department of Neurology, Medicine, and Community Medicine, West Virginia University School of Medicine, Morgantown, West Virginia 26506-9180, USA.
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Riggs
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology*; D016678:Genome; D006801:Humans; D008954:Models, Biological; D019636:Neurodegenerative Diseases / Q000235:genetics