Genes linked to ageing that could help explain why some people age at different rates to others have been identified by scientists.
The international study using genetic data from more than a million people suggests that maintaining healthy levels of iron in the blood could be a key to ageing better and living longer.
The findings could accelerate the development of drugs to reduce age-related diseases, extend healthy years of life and increase the chances of living to old age free of disease, the researchers say.
Scientists focused on three measures linked to biological ageing - lifespan, years of life lived free of disease (healthspan), and being extremely long-lived (longevity).
Biological ageing - the rate at which our bodies decline over time - varies between people and drives the world's most fatal diseases, including heart disease, dementia and cancers.
The researchers pooled information from three public datasets to enable an analysis in unprecedented detail. The combined dataset was equivalent to studying 1.75 million lifespans or more than 60,000 extremely long-lived people.
The team pinpointed ten regions of the genome linked to long lifespan, healthspan and longevity. They also found that gene sets linked to iron were overrepresented in their analysis of all three measures of ageing.
The researchers confirmed this using a statistical method - known as Mendelian randomisation - that suggested that genes involved in metabolising iron in the blood are partly responsible for a healthy long life.
Blood iron is affected by diet and abnormally high or low levels are linked to age-related conditions such as Parkinson's disease, liver disease and a decline in the body's ability to fight infection in older age.
The researchers say that designing a drug that could mimic the influence of genetic variation on iron metabolism could be a future step to overcome some of the effects of ageing, but caution that more work is required. The study was published in the journal Nature Communications.
Anonymised datasets linking genetic variation to healthspan, lifespan, and longevity were downloaded from the publically available Zenodo, Edinburgh DataShare and Longevity Genomics servers.
The author, said: "We are very excited by these findings as they strongly suggest that high levels of iron in the blood reduces our healthy years of life, and keeping these levels in check could prevent age-related damage. We speculate that our findings on iron metabolism might also start to explain why very high levels of iron-rich red meat in the diet has been linked to age-related conditions such as heart disease."
https://www.ed.ac.uk/news/2020/blood-iron-levels-could-be-key-to-slowing-ageing
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-17312-3
http://sciencemission.com/site/index.php?page=news&type=view&id=publications%2Fmultivariate-genomic&filter=22
Blood iron levels could be key to slowing ageing!
- 739 views
- Added
Edited
Latest News
Why episodes of low blood s…
By newseditor
Posted 30 Jan
Personalized brain modeling…
By newseditor
Posted 29 Jan
Afternoon chemotherapy impr…
By newseditor
Posted 29 Jan
Propionic acid protects ner…
By newseditor
Posted 28 Jan
How cells prevent harmful e…
By newseditor
Posted 28 Jan
Other Top Stories
White matter damage linked to worse cognitive outcomes after brain…
Read more
Synaptic but not structural changes cause cognitive problems from r…
Read more
Preeclampsia during pregnancy increases stroke risk later in life
Read more
A new way to reduce scarring!
Read more
The timing code (phase precession) found in the human hippocampus a…
Read more
Protocols
Machine learning prediction…
By newseditor
Posted 09 Jan
Differentiating PC12 cells…
By newseditor
Posted 09 Jan
Ultrasensitive sensors reve…
By newseditor
Posted 05 Jan
In vitro-derived medium spi…
By newseditor
Posted 04 Jan
Molecular and spatial signa…
By newseditor
Posted 30 Dec
Publications
HIF-1a accumulation in resp…
By newseditor
Posted 29 Jan
Electrical signals in the E…
By newseditor
Posted 29 Jan
Parathyroid hormone recepto…
By newseditor
Posted 29 Jan
Plasma biomarker profiles i…
By newseditor
Posted 29 Jan
Chemotherapy delivery time…
By newseditor
Posted 29 Jan
Presentations
Hydrogels in Drug Delivery
By newseditor
Posted 12 Apr
Lipids
By newseditor
Posted 31 Dec
Cell biology of carbohydrat…
By newseditor
Posted 29 Nov
RNA interference (RNAi)
By newseditor
Posted 23 Oct
RNA structure and functions
By newseditor
Posted 19 Oct
Posters
ASCO-2020-HEALTH SERVICES R…
By newseditor
Posted 23 Mar
ASCO-2020-HEAD AND NECK CANCER
By newseditor
Posted 23 Mar
ASCO-2020-GENITOURINARY CAN…
By newseditor
Posted 23 Mar
ASCO-2020-GENITOURINARY CAN…
By newseditor
Posted 10 Mar
ASCO-2020-GYNECOLOGIC CANCER
By newseditor
Posted 10 Mar