Mercedes M Pérez Jiménez

• PhD
• Principal Investigator at Andalusian Center for Developmental Biology

Background ONESTX-1/STX64/irosustat is a small molecule that inhibits steroid sulfatase (STS), increasing the ratio of sulfated/free steroids in animals and humans. In addition, ONESTX-1 showed a good safety and tolerability profile studied in several Phase I and II clinical trials for oncology indications. ONESTX-1 increased the life-span of C. el...

Alzheimer’s disease is the main cause of aging-associated dementia, for which there is no effective treatment. In this work, we reanalyze the information of a previous Genome Wide Association Study, using a new pipeline design to identify novel potential drugs. With this approach, ribonucleoside-diphosphate reductase gene (RRM2B) emerged as a candi...

Ageing is characterized by physiological decline and increased risk of agerelated diseases. The mitochondrial prohibitin (PHB) complex, a ringlike structure in the inner mitochondrial membrane, is critical to mitochondrial function and proteostasis. Depletion of PHB has opposite effects on ageing, shortening lifespan in wildtype worms while extendi...

Mitochondrial prohibitins (PHB) are highly conserved proteins with a peculiar effect on lifespan. While PHB depletion shortens lifespan of wild‐type animals, it enhances longevity of a plethora of metabolically compromised mutants, including target of rapamycin complex 2 (TORC2) mutants sgk‐1 and rict‐1. Here, we show that sgk‐1 mutants have impair...

Brugia malayi is a human filarial nematode responsible for elephantiasis, a debilitating condition that is part of a broader spectrum of diseases called filariasis, including lymphatic filariasis and river blindness. Almost all filarial nematode species infecting humans live in mutualism with Wolbachia endosymbionts, present in somatic hypodermal t...

Aging and fertility are two interconnected processes. From invertebrates to mammals, absence of the germline increases longevity. Here we show that loss of function of sul-2 , the Caenorhabditis elegans steroid sulfatase (STS), raises the pool of sulfated steroid hormones, increases longevity and ameliorates protein aggregation diseases. This incre...

Aging is a complex and multifactorial process influenced by different pathways interacting in a not completely defined manner. Mitochondrial prohibitins (PHBs) are strongly evolutionarily conserved proteins with a peculiar effect on lifespan. While their depletion shortens lifespan of wild type animals, it enhances longevity of a plethora of metabo...

Aging and fertility are two interconnected processes. From invertebrates to mammals, absence of the germline increases longevity by a still not fully understood mechanism. We find that loss of function of sul-2, the Caenorhabditis elegans steroid sulfatase (STS), raises the pool of sulfated steroid hormones and increases longevity. This increased l...

Although symbiotic interactions are ubiquitous in the living world, examples of developmental symbioses are still scarce. We show here the crucial role of Wol-bachia in the oogenesis of filarial nematodes, a class of parasites of biomedical and veterinary relevance. We applied newly developed techniques to demonstrate the earliest requirements of W...

Although symbiotic interactions are ubiquitous in the living world, examples of developmental symbioses are still scarce. We show here the crucial role of Wolbachia in the oogenesis of filarial nematodes, a class of parasites of biomedical and veterinary relevance. While the Wolbachia -depleted nematodes produce faulty embryos, we identified thanks...

A pesar de que el envejecimiento es un proceso conocido desde la antigüedad, sus reglas y normas todavía no se comprenden completamente. Con esta revisión queremos arrojar luz sobre el complejo mundo de la regulación genética del envejecimiento, específicamente en la regulación de la longevidad dependiente del estado reproductivo del animal. Los es...

Nuclear envelope (NE) architecture and aging have been associated since the discovery that certain human progeria diseases are due to perturbations in processing of lamin A protein, generating alterations in NE morphology. However, whether changes in the NE are a causal effect of normal and premature aging is still controversial. Caenorhabditis ele...

In Caenorhabditis elegans, the insulin/IGF pathway participates in the decision to initiate dauer development. Dauer is a diapause stage that is triggered by environmental stresses, such as a lack of nutrients. Insulin/IGF receptor mutants arrest constitutively in dauer, an effect that can be suppressed by mutations in other elements of the insulin...