Are gut bacteria the key to healthy aging?
An increasing number of recent studies are asking an important question: Do gut bacteria hold the key to healthy aging? New research, recently presented at the London Microbiome Meeting, brings us closer to the answer.
In the ancient myth of Tithonus, the eponymous protagonist asks the gods to live forever but forgets to demand eternal youth.
Although he gained immortality, the diseases of old age eventually defeat Tithonus, and he bitterly regrets his immortality.
While achieving longevity is a goal worth pursuing and an ambition that humankind has harbored since the times of Ancient Greece, the myth of Tithonus reminds us that a long life has little value if riddled with disease.
As human life expectancy increases, the world population is aging at much higher rates. In fact, the United Nations estimate that the senior population — that is, the number of people aged 60 and above — is increasing at a rate of approximately 3 percent per year.
Currently, there are 962 million people aged 60 and above across the globe, according to the most recent estimates. By the year 2050, this number is projected to more than double, and the number of people aged 80 and above is expected to triple.
A range of chronic diseases accompanies aging. By the year 2060, for example, the Alzheimer's disease burden in the United States will have doubled, say the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
They predict that almost 14 million people will have Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia by then, and researchers are hard at work trying to prevent this and other age-related diseases.
So, the question "How can we live longer and healthier lives?" is slowly replacing that of "How can we live longer?" As scientists embark on the quest for a longer healthspan, it is becoming clearer that aging is not just an inevitable process that simply "happens," but that there are precise molecular mechanisms that regulate it.
Marina Ezcurra, Ph.D. — a lecturer in neuroscience at the School of Biological & Chemical Sciences at Queen Mary University of London in the United Kingdom — dedicates her time to understanding these mechanisms.
Her research focuses on how aging and its related diseases occur in a worm called Caenorhabditis elegans. More recently, Ezcurra and her team have been examining gastrointestinal aging and the role of the microbiome in this process.
On 24 October, 2018, Ezcurra presented her research at the London Microbiome Meeting in the U.K. In this Spotlight feature, we report on the key takeaways from her presentation.
