{"id":216612,"date":"2025-06-25T21:10:18","date_gmt":"2025-06-26T02:10:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2025\/06\/dissecting-the-cell-cycle-regulation-dna-damage-sensitivity-and-lifespan-effects-of-caffeine-in-fission-yeast"},"modified":"2025-06-25T21:10:18","modified_gmt":"2025-06-26T02:10:18","slug":"dissecting-the-cell-cycle-regulation-dna-damage-sensitivity-and-lifespan-effects-of-caffeine-in-fission-yeast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2025\/06\/dissecting-the-cell-cycle-regulation-dna-damage-sensitivity-and-lifespan-effects-of-caffeine-in-fission-yeast","title":{"rendered":"Dissecting the cell cycle regulation, DNA damage sensitivity and lifespan effects of caffeine in fission yeast"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/logo.dissecting-the-cell-cycle-regulation-dna-damage-sensitivity-and-lifespan-effects-of-caffeine-in-fission-yeast.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Caffeine has long been associated with health benefits, including a reduced risk of age-related diseases. However, the specifics of how caffeine interacts with cellular mechanisms and nutrient and stress-responsive gene networks have remained elusive \u2014 until now.<\/p>\n<p>In this pioneering research, published in the journal Microbial Cell, scientists used fission yeast, a single-celled organism with surprising similarities to human cells, to delve deeper into caffeine\u2019s impact.<\/p>\n<p>The researchers discovered that caffeine influences aging by engaging an ancient cellular energy system.<\/p>\n<p>A few years ago, the same team found that caffeine prolongs cell life by acting on a growth regulator known as TOR (Target of Rapamycin). TOR is a molecular switch that regulates cell growth based on available food and energy and has been part of the evolutionary landscape for over 500 million years.<\/p>\n<p>However, their latest study unveiled a surprising new finding: caffeine does not directly act on the TOR switch. Instead, it activates AMPK, a cellular fuel gauge that is conserved through evolution in both yeast and humans.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen your cells are low on energy, AMPK kicks in to help them cope,\u201d senior author Charalampos (Babis) Rallis, a reader in genetics, genomics and fundamental cell biology at Queen Mary University of London, said in a news release. \u201cAnd our results show that caffeine helps flip that switch.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Intriguingly, AMPK is also the target of metformin, a common diabetes medication currently under scrutiny for its potential to extend human lifespan when used alongside rapamycin.<\/p>\n<div class=\"more-link-wrapper\"> <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2025\/06\/dissecting-the-cell-cycle-regulation-dna-damage-sensitivity-and-lifespan-effects-of-caffeine-in-fission-yeast\">Continue reading \u201cDissecting the cell cycle regulation, DNA damage sensitivity and lifespan effects of caffeine in fission yeast\u201d | &gt;<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Caffeine has long been associated with health benefits, including a reduced risk of age-related diseases. However, the specifics of how caffeine interacts with cellular mechanisms and nutrient and stress-responsive gene networks have remained elusive \u2014 until now. In this pioneering research, published in the journal Microbial Cell, scientists used fission yeast, a single-celled organism with [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":701,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,385,1506,412,269],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-216612","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biotech-medical","category-evolution","category-food","category-genetics","category-life-extension"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216612","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/701"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=216612"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216612\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=216612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=216612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=216612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}