Roundworms gave another clue about life extension
As an object for studying the mechanisms of aging, researchers at the University of Texas, working under the guidance of Dr. Shane Rea, like many others, use roundworms Caenorhabditis elegans. Approximately 80% of the proteins forming the organism of these creatures have analogues in the human body, which makes these short-lived animals an exceptionally valuable experimental model.
On average, the lifespan of C.elegans is about 3 weeks; however, some mutant forms live for more than six months, while others live for only a few days.
In their latest study, which compared the production of various metabolites in the cells of normal worms and various mutant lines, the authors used more than 7 million individuals. Metabolites are numerous chemical compounds synthesized during the vital activity of the body.
Experiments have shown that long- and short-lived worms differ greatly in the composition of metabolites, which, in turn, also differ greatly from the profile of metabolites recorded in the body of normal individuals.
The results of the work demonstrated that an increase in the lifespan of one of the long-lived forms of C.elegans is accompanied by the accumulation of metabolites characteristic of the inactivation of three mitochondrial enzymes belonging to the family of alpha-keto acid dehydrogenases. What these three enzymes have in common is the presence of a subunit known as dihydrolipoamide dehydrogenase (DLD). Artificial inactivation of this enzymatic subunit in normal worm cells using RNA interference has demonstrated unique results. An increase in the concentration of interfering RNA initially led to a shortening of the worms' life, while its further increase provided a significant increase in their life expectancy. These observations indicate the unique role of dihydrolipoamide dehydrogenase in modulating the aging process.
An interesting fact is that, according to existing data, changes in the expression of the gene encoding this protein subunit are associated with a person's predisposition to Alzheimer's disease.
The authors note that blocking these enzymes will not necessarily lead to an increase in human life expectancy, however, they believe that they have discovered an extremely interesting direction of research work.
Article by Jeffrey A. Butler et al. A metabolic signature for long life in the Caenorhabditis elegans Mit mutants is published in the journal Aging Cell.
Evgeniya Ryabtseva
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru based on the materials of the UT Health Science Center at San Antonio:
Study of roundworms yields potential clues in human aging.
01.02.2013