Another cure for old age?
Lack of sense of smell prolongs the worms' life
American researchers have found that a reagent that deprives worms of the ability to smell, prolongs their life. In a press release published on the website of Washington University in St. Louis, the authors of the work specify that the conditions and diet of long-lived worms did not differ from the conditions in which "ordinary" worms lived.
Scientists started their research several years ago. They were looking for drugs that increase the lifespan of Caenorhabditis elegans, a microscopic worm that is often used as a model for biochemical research. In particular, this effect was exerted by ethosuccimide, a drug used to suppress seizures in humans. On average, worms exposed to this drug lived 29 percent longer than others.
The researchers found that the effect of this anticonvulsant is similar to the effect of some mutations that inhibit the activity of certain sensitive neurons. After exposure to ethosuccimide, C. elegans lost their sense of smell.
The results obtained by scientists can explain the well-known effect of increasing life expectancy with a low-calorie diet. It has been shown, in particular, for C. elegans and for yeast. Organisms placed in conditions of food shortage lived longer on average than usual. According to one of the authors of the work, Kerry Kornfeld, it is the ability to smell food that is crucial for changing the metabolism of living beings and increasing life expectancy.
When worms feel that there is enough food around, their metabolism is rebuilt. C. elegans "adjusts" fast digestion of food, rapid growth and, accordingly, rapid aging. In conditions of a lack of nutrients (and worms without a sense of smell "believe" that there is no food around), the body "decides" to slow down the absorption of food, use energy more economically and, as a result, live longer.
At the moment, it is unknown whether ethosuccimide increases life expectancy in humans (although it is known that a side effect of the drug is loss of taste). A large number of recent papers prove that key metabolic pathways are generally similar in groups of organisms that are far apart from each other. Kornfeld does not rule out that the connection between the ability to smell and life expectancy may in some form persist in humans.
Portal "Eternal youth" www.vechnayamolodost.ru
27.10.2008