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NEW YORK – Only 30% of human genes, which are traditional features of aging, can be directly involved in the aging process, according to a study by a US Indian researcher from the National Institutes of Health.
The study suggests that scientists may need to rethink which genes actually control aging.
To understand this, the researchers fed the fruit flies with antibiotics and monitored the lifelong activity of hundreds of genes that scientists say traditionally control aging.
To their surprise, antibiotics not only prolonged the life of flies, but also drastically altered the activity of many of these genes. Their results suggest that only about 30 percent of genes traditionally associated with aging regulate an animal’s internal clock while the rest reflect the body’s response to bacteria.
“For decades scientists have developed a list of common aging genes. These genes are believed to control the aging process throughout the animal kingdom, from worms to mice to humans,” said Edward Giniger, of NIH National Institute of Neurological Disorders. and stroke.
“We were shocked to find that only about 30% of these genes may be directly involved in the aging process. We hope these findings will help medical researchers better understand the forces underlying several disorders related to aging. ‘age, “he added. The results are published in the journal iScience.
For the study, the team bred newborn male flies – a type of fruit fly called Drosophila – with antibiotics to prevent the growth of bacteria. At first, they thought the antibiotics would have little or no effect. But, when they looked at the results, they saw something interesting. Antibiotics prolonged the life of the flies by about six days, from 57 days for control flies to 63 days for treated flies.
“This is a big age jump for flies. In humans, it would be the equivalent of gaining about 20 years of life,” said lead author Arvind Kumar Shukla, post-doctoral researcher at the university.
“We were totally caught off guard and it made us wonder why these flies took so long to die,” added Shukla.
Shukla and her team searched for clues in the genes of flies. They used advanced genetic techniques to monitor gene activity in the heads of 10, 30 and 45 day old flies.
“At first we struggled to believe the results. Many of these genes are classic features of aging and yet our results suggest that their activity is more a function of the presence of bacteria than of the aging process,” said Shukla. .
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