What is aging and how to deal with it

"Aging is a disease"

Nadezhda Markina, "Newspaper.Ru»"Newspaper.

Ru" with the help of the world's leading experts, I understood what leads to the aging of the body. Scientists study the genome of centenarians, develop biomarkers of aging, investigate the role of microbiota and specific biochemical pathways. They are trying to understand what exactly breaks down in the body with age and why breakdowns stop being repaired.

Accumulation of harmful mutationsThe most active search for "keys to aging" is at the genome level.

With age, mutations accumulate in cells, says Jan Weig, head of the laboratory at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Their number increases in elderly mice, fruit flies and humans, of course, too. However, what is meant is what geneticists call somatic mutations – not received from parents, but arising in the cells of the body (soma) over the course of life.

As explained to the "Newspaper.En" Alexander Maslov, who works at the Albert Einstein College Medical Center, distinguishing one mutation from another is a very difficult task technically. Alexander Maslov and his colleagues from Voronezh State University are currently working on its solution: "We are trying to develop a strategy for assessing genome damage as an indicator of the general state of a person." In Voronezh, scientists have registered a company that is engaged in research activities to develop biomarkers of aging that objectively show biological age.

Various biochemical pathways are involved in the aging process. Today, scientists distinguish two main ones. The first pathway is triggered by activation of insulin-like growth factor (IGF-1). The other pathway is triggered by the TOR (target of rapamicine) molecule. Both trigger aging-related processes. Blocking these signaling pathways inhibits aging. The main problem is how to do it with a minimum of side effects.

Genes of long lifeIt would seem that the secret of a person's non–aging should be sought from those people who manage to outwit death and live for a long time - a hundred or more years.

The genome of centenarians has been actively studied for a long time by Claudio Francesco, a professor at the University of Bologna in Italy, and his group. "I have good news," said Claudio Francesco, "it is enough to have at least one parent who has lived a long time, and your chances of becoming a centenarian increase." Scientists have managed to find several sites in the genome associated with longevity, as well as sites associated with early death. Good and bad genetic variations (single nucleotide substitutions, SNP) were found. The APOE gene is the most studied in this regard – its polymorphism is strongly associated with longevity or early death.

"We studied a group of 100-year–olds in Italy," said Claudio Francesco "Газете.Ru ". – It turned out that centenarians either do not have genetic variants of predisposition to age-related diseases at all, or they are compensated for by protective genes. Our goal is to identify these protective genes of major age-related diseases." At the same time, Francesco stressed, it is possible to negate the influence of "good" genes by an incorrect lifestyle – poor nutrition, alcohol, smoking.

According to the data obtained in his study by Nir Brazilai, a professor at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and his colleagues, the IGF signaling pathway was changed in a significant proportion of 100-year-old Ashkenazi Jews. Less activity of this biochemical pathway is associated with longevity.

We talked about another example of studying a centenarian – a 115-year–old woman from the Netherlands - last week.

Our microbial roommatesThe keys to aging can be found not only in the nuclear genome, but also in the mitochondrial genome, as well as in the "metagenome".

The latter concept means the combined human genome and its microbiota. If we take the genome of all bacteria living in humans, then it far exceeds the human one in terms of the number of genes. It turns out that a person can be considered as a kind of meta-organization. The role of our microbial cohabitants in the last decade has been growing more and more in the eyes of scientists. They are blamed for many diseases – from diabetes to autism. Francesco's research demonstrates the role of microbiota in aging. When scientists compared the metagenome of a group of ordinary people and a group of centenarians, it turned out that centenarians differ in the diversity of bacteria in the intestinal microflora.

Experts think that if you learn how to influence the microbiota in the right way, you can use it to increase life expectancy. One of the easiest ways to influence the microbiota is nutrition. Now Claudio Francesco is starting a study on a large cohort of subjects on the effect of the Mediterranean diet on the body.

Claudio Francesco develops a view of aging as a general inflammatory process that covers the entire body. Accordingly, those drugs that slow down aging and prolong life reduce this inflammatory process. The "right" microbiota found in centenarians also resists general inflammation.

Anatoly Yashin, who works at Duke University in Durham, tells the newspaper.Ru", how can we explain the increase in life expectancy that has occurred in people over the past 150 years: "As far as I understand, the genetic structure of the population in those countries where there is no strong migration has changed slightly. But the surrounding conditions have changed. They were able to activate some genes that had not been activated before. Organisms react to changes in conditions, at least to changes in nutrition, by changing the expression of genes. Other genes (except the main ones) are included in the energy exchange."

A program or not a program?As often happens when discussing some global problem, it is difficult to agree on what exactly it is.

What is aging? There are a lot of theories on this subject, determining which processes deteriorate in the body with age and what is the key link. At a more generalized level, it is discussed whether this process is programmed or random.

Despite its apparent regularity, it cannot be called programmed, experts say, since any program is written in the genes. Our entire development, from the egg to the adult, is recorded in our genes. And aging – no, there are no "aging genes".

So this is an accumulation of random events, random breakdowns? Most scientists today adhere to a compromise point of view, calling aging a "quasi-programmed" process. And since breakdowns in cells happen all the time and are successfully repaired, according to everyone, the essence of aging is not in the breakdowns themselves, but in the fact that repairs are worse.

There are many theories of aging, and all specialists dealing with this problem feel the need for an integral approach, the need for a common concept that would unite different theories. The participants of the conference discussed these issues at a round table. The most general concept was presented by Robert Schmuckler Rice, who managed to extend the life of a living organism – a nematode worm – by 10 times. Its concept includes several interrelated processes at different levels, from the cell to the organism.

These are DNA damage, mitochondrial dysregulation, inflammation, oxidative stress, disruption of the normal configuration of proteins, epigenetic disorders (changes in gene methylation).

The main message that the participants of the conference "Genetics of Aging and Longevity" are trying to convey to society, politicians and authorities is that aging is a disease. Aging is the main risk of age–related diseases: from Alzheimer's disease to cancer. These theses are also contained in a letter from the conference participants to WHO Director General Margaret Chan. Scientists and doctors recommend that WHO collect and integrate data on age-related diseases as a separate category of diseases and direct special efforts to combat them, which will lead to the improvement of society.

Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru28.04.2014