The gut microbiome is an integral part of the body, but its importance in the aging process of humans has been unclear for a long time.
Researchers from the Institute for Systems Biology (ISB) and their collaborators identified distinct signatures in the gut microbiome that correlate with either healthy or unhealthy aging pathways, which in turn predict survival in a cohort of older individuals.
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The research team analyzed the gut microbiome, phenotype and clinical data for more than 9,000 people, between the ages of 18 and 101, across three independent groups.
The team focused in particular on the longitudinal data of a group of more than 900 elderly individuals (78-98 years), which allows them to track health and survival outcomes.
The data showed that gut microbiomes became increasingly unique (i.e. diverging increasingly from others) as individuals age, starting in mid-to-late adulthood, which corresponds to a steady decline in the abundance of basic bacterial genera (such as bacteria) that tend to be They are common to humans.
Remarkably, while microbiomes became increasingly unique to every individual in healthy aging, the metabolic functions of the microbiomes shared common traits. This intestinal uniqueness was closely related to several metabolites derived from microbes in the blood plasma, including, indole derived from tryptophan, which has been shown previously to prolong the life of mice.
The blood levels of another metabolite, phenylacetylglutamine, showed a stronger association with exclusivity, and previous work had shown that this metabolite was indeed elevated in the blood of centenarians.
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The research scientist at the Institute of Systems Biology, Dr. Thomas Wilmansky, who led the study, said that healthy individuals who reach the age of about 80 years showed a continuous bacterial drift towards a unique state of formation, but this deviation was absent in less healthy individuals.
“Interestingly, this unique pattern appears to start in middle age (40-50 years), and is associated with a clear metabolic imprint in the blood, which indicates that these changes in the microbiome may not be just a diagnosis of healthy aging, but they are,” Welmansky said. It may directly contribute to health as we get older. ” For example, indoles are known to reduce inflammation in the intestine, and chronic inflammation is believed to be the main driver of the development of diseases associated with aging.
This analysis highlights the fact that the adult gut microbiome continues to evolve with age in healthy individuals, but not in unhealthy people, and that health-related microbiome combinations in early to mid adulthood may not be compatible with health in late adulthood.
“This is exciting work that we think will have significant clinical implications for monitoring and modifying the health of the gut microbiome throughout a person’s life,” said Dr. Nathan Price, professor at the Institute of Systems Biology (ISB) and co-author of the research.
Source: Science Daily
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