A Potential Elixir of Life?

18th July 2023 - Last modified 19th October 2023

By Bree Foster PhD, Science Writer

Living Healthier for Longer

Aging is an inevitable part of life that brings about a systematic decline in health, with a higher predisposition for conditions such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, and dementia. While advancements in healthcare have significantly increased the average lifespan of humans over the past century, many people are still spending a significant number of years in poor health towards the end of their lives [1]. This has resulted in a substantial burden on healthcare systems worldwide, particularly among the elderly population. Given that the number of older people is predicted to increase markedly over the next 25 years [2], addressing age-related health conditions is a pressing societal challenge.

In this blog, we discuss recent progress in the science of healthy aging and prospects we can expect for the future.

A Boom in Healthy Aging Science

Increasingly, researchers are proposing that targeting aging itself, rather than focusing solely on individual age-related diseases, could be the more effective approach [3]. The conventional medical perspective has been to treat diseases as they manifest. However, a growing field known as “geroscience” poses an alternative question: What if we could prolong the period of good health rather than merely extending our lifespan?

By concentrating on interventions that aim to delay the frailty and disability associated with aging, experts in the field strive to slow down, and potentially reverse, the biological processes of aging. This could lead to a reduction in the incidence of conditions such as cancer, dementia, cardiovascular disease, and frailty.

Research has indicated that drugs like Metformin and Rapamycin can delay aging and improve health, and clinical trials are currently underway to investigate their efficacy as treatments for healthy aging in humans [4,5].

Furthermore, increasing evidence in the field of epigenetics points to the significant role of the organisation and chemical mapping of DNA in the process of aging [6]. This has been supported by studies in mice, which have shown that vision can be partially restored in aging mice by reprogramming their gene expression [7]. These findings suggest that the effects of aging can not only be delayed but potentially reversed!

Taming Time with Taurine 

The latest scientific advancements have shed light on another promising avenue for revolutionising healthy aging – an amino acid called taurine [8].

Taurine is the most abundant free amino acid in the body and plays an important role in several essential biological processes, including supporting immune health and nervous system function. While taurine constitutes approximately 0.1% of the body weight in animals, it is virtually absent in plants. However, humans can synthesise taurine independently of diet as well.

While the precise mechanisms of action for taurine are not fully understood, small clinical trials with taurine supplementation in humans have suggested potential benefits in metabolic and inflammatory diseases. Additionally, the same study highlighted a decline in circulating taurine levels as a characteristic feature of aging across multiple species, revealing a staggering 80% decrease in taurine levels among elderly people compared to younger individuals [3].

The study further revealed that supplementing taurine from middle age in both mice and nematode worms showed a remarkable increase in longevity of up to 12% and 23%, respectively. However, taurine appears to not only slow aging and extend lifespan, but also improve health span—meaning that the animals didn’t just live longer, but healthier too.

In mice, taurine supplementation was associated with improvements in strength, coordination, and memory, as well as a reduction in several hallmarks of aging, such as cellular senescence, mitochondrial and DNA damage, and chronic inflammation. Excitingly, taurine supplementation also showed positive effects on bone health, metabolic phenotypes, and immunological profiles in middle-aged rhesus macaques, suggesting that it could have similar benefits in humans.

The Future is Looking Bright

Aging research has progressed to the point where interventions that regulate human aging are a realistic possibility. While the understanding of taurine’s role in healthy aging is still in its early stages, the recent findings suggest that it could hold significant potential as an “elixir of life.”

The ability of taurine to positively impact lifespan, mitigate age-related ailments, and improve various health markers in multiple organisms is highly encouraging. Although further research is warranted to unravel the precise mechanisms of taurine’s actions and its potential applications for human health. If future studies validate these findings, taurine supplementation could become a powerful tool in promoting healthy aging and reducing the burden of chronic diseases on society, ultimately leading to a better quality of life for aging individuals.

Such advances can’t come soon enough. After all, none of us are getting any younger.

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References

[1] Office for National Statistics (2016) Healthy life expectancy at birth and age 65 by upper tier local authority and area deprivation: England, 2012 to 2014; GBD Causes of Death Collaborators (2017) Global, regional, and national incidence, prevalence, and years lived with disability for 328 diseases and injuries for 195 countries, 1990-2016 The Lancet 390: 1211-59. URL https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/

[2] Office for National Statistics (2015) National population projections: 2014-based statistical bulletin. URL https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/populationprojections

[3] Scott, A.J., Ellison, M., Sinclair, D.A., 2021. The economic value of targeting aging. Nat Aging 1, 616–623. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43587-021-00080-0

[4] Albert Einstein College of Medicine, 2021. Metformin in Longevity Study (MILES). (Clinical trial registration No. NCT02432287). clinicaltrials.gov.

[5] AgelessRx, 2022. Participatory Evaluation (of) Aging (With) Rapamycin (for) Longevity Study (PEARL): A Prospective, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Trial for Rapamycin in Healthy Individuals Assessing Safety and Efficacy in Reducing Aging Effects (Clinical trial registration No. NCT04488601). clinicaltrials.gov.

[6] Yang, J.-H., Hayano, M., Griffin, P.T., Amorim, J.A., Bonkowski, M.S., et al., 2023. Loss of epigenetic information as a cause of mammalian aging. Cell 186, 305-326.e27. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2022.12.027

[7] Lu, Y., Brommer, B., Tian, X., Krishnan, A., Meer, M., et al., 2020. Reprogramming to recover youthful epigenetic information and restore vision. Nature 588, 124–129. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-2975-4

[8] Singh, P., Gollapalli, K., Mangiola, S., Schranner, D., Yusuf, M.A., et al., 2023. Taurine deficiency as a driver of aging. Science 380, eabn9257. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abn9257