Aging is associated with an overall decline in health and increased frailty, and is a major risk factor for multiple chronic diseases.
Frailty syndrome, characterized by weakness, fatigue and low physical activity, affects more than 30% of the elderly population.
Recent evidence suggests that diet and metabolism are key targetable regulators of a healthy lifespan.
In a new study from Bar-Ilan University and elsewhere, researchers found SIRT6 protein is involved in regulating many biological processes, such as aging, obesity, and insulin resistance.
They found that transgenic mice express high levels of the SIRT6 gene, and show that their life expectancy can be increased by an average of 30% in both males and females.
Translated into human terms this means that a 90-year-old could live until nearly 120!
Furthermore, the mice exhibited strong improvement in overcoming a variety of age-related diseases, such as cancer and blood disorders.
Beyond this, strikingly, they were able to conduct the same level of vigorous activity as young mice, and didn’t become frail.
Next, through a variety of biochemical methods and metabolic analyses, the researchers deciphered the mechanism through which SIRT6 acts as a type of “fountain of youth”, facilitating healthy aging.
They showed that older animals lose the ability to generate energy in the absence of external energy sources, such as a short fast.
On the other hand, the engineered mice maintained an enhanced energy generation capacity from other storage, such as the breakdown of fats and lactic acid.
By doing so, they created sugar utilized for energy in muscle and specifically in the brain. In fact, SIRT6 activates a physical response that is identical to diets that increase longevity.
This discovery, combined with the team’s previous findings, shows that SIRT6 controls the rate of healthy aging.
The team says if they can determine how to activate it in humans, they will be able to prolong life, and this could have enormous health and economic implications.
If you care about aging and your health, please read studies about common diabetes drug may improve healthy aging and findings of a new way to treat hair loss and skin aging.
For more information about aging, please see recent studies about human growth hormone may reverse aging and results showing that a new drug could delay muscle aging.
The study is published in Nature Communications. One author of the study is Prof. Haim Cohen.
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