According to the British "New Scientist" weekly on November 28, humans may have found a new way to extend the lifespan of many mammals, including humans.
According to the report, the maximum lifespan of mammals such as humans can be estimated by so-called epigenetic markers, which may increase lifespan.
A study of 15,000 tissue samples from 348 mammalian species showed that by looking for the presence or absence of epigenetic markers at specific locations in the genome, it is possible to live the longest life. What's more, there may be a causal relationship. That said, altering epigenetic markers may lead to longer lifespans.
My confirmation is that this is very likely. Steve Horvatt, of Ottos Laboratories in Cambridge, UK, said. A team of researchers has succeeded in extending the lifespan of invertebrates such as worms by about a third by altering epigenetics. "So maybe you can change the epigenome of the mice somehow so that the mice can live one or two years longer," Horvath said. ”
Many of the differences between species are not due to genetic differences, but rather to differences in how those genes are used – for example, when they are turned on or off. One of the key ways to regulate genes is to incorporate epigenetic marks into DNA – a chemical marker that alters the activity of a gene without altering the underlying sequence.
A common epigenetic change involves the addition of a small molecule called a methyl group to the C of DNA, a process known as methylation. Horvath led a seven-year project to study methylation patterns in up to 60 different tissue types in 348 mammalian species. The work is funded by private donors, but the information is provided free of charge.
His team has demonstrated that methylation patterns in DNA sequences common to all mammals can be used to estimate the age of individual animals. Today, the team has used supervised mechanistic Xi look for longevity-associated methylation patterns in DNA sequences that are common to all mammals.
"If you find a piece of ** or a tail or anything from a species you don't know about, and give me that sample, I can tell you the maximum lifespan, gestation period, and age of sexual maturity for that species," Horvat said. For me, this is extraordinary. ”
These methylation patterns vary from tissue to tissue, and the maximum lifespan is only a rough estimate. This method is the most inaccurate for humans, whose human beings can only live to about 98 years at most, while the world's longest-lived person, Jeanne Calman, lived to be 122 years old. Carman's age has been controversial, but it has also been confirmed that he lived to be 119 years old.
We are complete outliers. "Our gorilla cousins only live for a maximum of 60 years, Horvath said.
Of the 348 species, females in 17 species, including humans, consistently have longer life expectancy.
The team also found that lifestyle factors such as calorie restriction or weight control had little effect on maximum life expectancy.
I think it's amazing work," said João Pedro de Magaras, a professor at the University of Birmingham in the UK, "and it's interesting that these methylation sites tend to occur in genes that are involved in development, which is in line with the idea that development influences the rate of aging to some extent." In other words, maybe mice age 20 to 30 times faster than humans because they develop 20 to 30 times faster than humans. ”
Whether the relationship between epigenetic traits and longevity is causal is a big question," he says, "and my gut feeling is that some of these epigenetic traits do reflect causal processes." (Compiled by Wen Yi).