Those of us who pay attention to the ebb and flow of the longevity industry can’t help but be entertained by researchers’ fixation in recent years on fixing our aging mitochondria. The tiny “power plants” of our cells, which play a key role in the aging process, are particularly amenable to manipulation, we’ve been told, offering hope for an extended “healthspan.”
You may recall the headlines touting the ability of resveratrol, a compound found in red wine, to trigger mitochondrial behavior in such a way that transformed elderly lab mice into youngsters. This seemed promising until it became clear that the dosage researchers bestowed on the mice was equivalent to downing more than a hundred bottles of wine. Similar research involving metformin and rapamycin have produced similar — albeit less comical — caveats.
Less celebrated, but no less ambitious, have been efforts to demonstrate the salutary effects of mitochondrial transplantation. Harvesting healthy mitochondria and injecting them into damaged ones has been shown to improve specific outcomes in two clinical studies. But these studies involved so few participants (five in one; 24 in the other) that the results invited skepticism. Meanwhile, researchers are forging ahead in their efforts to use gene-editing technology to reduce the prevalence of a specific mutation that tends to disrupt mitochondrial function. None of these strategies have yet been shown to have any practical application.
Describing the mitochondrial research landscape in a 2024 review, Qian Hua Phua, PhD, a senior researcher at Singapore’s Agency for Science, Technology and Research, nevertheless sounds an optimistic note. “As researchers continue to uncover the role of mitophagy in aging, enhancing this process has emerged as a potential therapeutic target for promoting healthy aging and mitigating the effects of age-related diseases,” she writes in the journal Aging and Disease. “Further studies are necessary to confirm the potential benefits and establish the most effective strategies to harness mitophagy for human health and longevity.”
And the studies keep rolling in. Just last month, for instance, Satoshi Inoue, MD, PhD, a professor at the Tokyo Metropolitan Institute for Geriatrics and Gerontology, and his team published a paper in Aging Cell touting the power of an obscure mitochondrial protein to keep lab mice younger longer.
Researchers genetically engineered these mice to produce higher levels of this protein, known as COX7RP, throughout their lifespan — which lasted 6.6 percent longer, on average, than normal mice. Not surprisingly, perhaps, they displayed all the signs of robust, youthful health: enhanced insulin sensitivity, low cholesterol, and strong muscles. When Inoue and his team inspected the cells from these mice, they found the mitochondria produced higher levels of the “mitochondrial respiratory supercomplexes” that contribute to the production of adenosine triphosphate (ATP), the energy that fuels the body. And RNA sequencing on tissues samples also showed fewer expressed genes linked to age-related inflammatory responses than in older mice.
“Our study elucidated novel mitochondrial mechanisms underlying antiaging and longevity, and provided new insights into strategies for promoting healthspan and extending lifespan,” Inoue explains. “For instance, supplements and medications that enhance the assembly and function of mitochondria respiratory supercomplexes may contribute to longevity expansion.”
Or maybe we could just eat more dark chocolate. That’s the longevity strategy King’s College London researchers floated in a study published last week in the journal Aging. They suggest that high levels of theobromine, a compound commonly found in dark chocolate, may slow the aging process.
Analyzing data from more than 1,600 participants in the TwinsUK and KORA studies, King’s College epigenomics professor Jordana Bell, PhD, and her team measured theobromine content in participants’ blood samples and calculated their biological age from chemical changes in their DNA and the length of their telomeres. They concluded that those participants hosting higher levels of the compound were biologically younger than their chronological age.
“This is a very exciting finding, and the next important questions are what is behind this association and how can we explore the interactions between dietary metabolites and our epigenome further,” notes clinical geneticist and study coauthor Ramy Saad. “This approach could lead us to important discoveries towards aging, and beyond, in common and rare diseases.”
We should not, Bell warns, interpret the study’s conclusions in such a way as to encourage antiaging devotees to increase their intake of dark chocolate. But I’d beg to differ. Nothing else pairs quite so nicely with red wine.
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