The research team - led by Matthew Ulgherait, an associate professor in the Departments of Integrative Biology and Physiology and Biological Chemistry at the University of California-Los Angeles (UCLA) - says their findings may offer a strategy for delaying aging and disease in the human body.
For their study, recently published in the journalCell Reports, Ulgherait and his team focused on autophagy - a process in which cells break down and dispose of its old or broken parts before the cells are damaged beyond repair.
This process protects against aging, the team says, noting that previous research has indicated that a gene called AMPK activates autophagy.
As such, the researchers wanted to see how activating the AMPK gene in Drosophila melanogaster, more commonly known as the fruit fly, influenced the aging process.
The fruit fly is an ideal model in which to study human aging, they explain, because scientists have identified all of its genes and know how to activate and deactivate each of them.
Activating AMPK gene 'increased lifespan of fruit flies by 30%'
The researchers were surprised to find that when they activated the AMPK gene in the nervous system of the flies, autophagy was increased in both the brain and intestine. And when activating the gene in the intestine, autophagy was increased in the brain, intestine and other areas of the body.
Activating the AMPK gene in the intestine increased the lifespan of the fruit flies by around 30% - from the usual 6 weeks to 8 weeks - according to the team, and it also increased the length of time the flies remained healthy.
"We have shown that when we activate the gene in the intestine or the nervous system, we see the aging process is slowed beyond the organ system in which the gene is activated," says senior study author David Walker of the Department of Integrative Biology and Physiology and the Molecular Biology Institute at UCLA.
When it comes to protecting humans against the aging process, it goes beyond the skin. Walker notes that human organs also need protecting from age-related disease, but he says that delivering anti-aging treatments to the brain or other major organs is challenging.
He says that these findings, however, suggest that the aging process of the entire body - including the brain - may be delayed simply by activating the AMPK gene in an organ that is more accessible, such as the intestine.
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/282245.php
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