There is so much to know about the fountain of youth and there are conspiracy theories why some people age and others do not. It’s no secret that the search for the fountain of youth has been the talk of lifestyle addicts and even entertainers whose search for being young is all the rage. Now Google has developed Calico-A company whose mission is to find what others cannot find to extend life. It seems they mean business. The biologist Craig Venter has also entered this race. His company called Human Longevity Inc. has banked on this. However, it has been found that a small group of researchers at ETH-Zurich has taken over, announcing last week that they had isolated a small group of genes that modulates the aging process. This doesn’t complicate things because they are manipulating genes responsible for aging, maybe even halting, or perhaps even reversing the process.

These researchers took a great approach in finding these genes, while focusing on animal subjects. They took three animals with vastly disparate biologies and looked for a common set of genes that influenced aging across all three. In their first study, they found up to 1 percent of genes in animals like the nematodes could expand life expectancy. However, there are a small subset of these to be influenced. The animals they chose including the nematode all were responsible for the claim.

To understand how this research will progress will take time. A measure of these genes can be found in the number of molecules. It is also present in animal cells. When these molecules are widespread, that gene is unregulated and when it is limited, the expression of this gene is minimal. By using statistical models, the researchers looked for the intersection of genes that were regulated in the same manner across the different life stages of all three animals. Out of 40,000 genes shared by the organisms, the researchers identified a mere 30.

One of these genes is the BCAT-1 gene (branched-chain amino transferase), which seems to effect aging. The BCAT-1 gene regulates an enzyme of the same name, which is responsible for degrading branched-chain amino acids naturally occurring in food proteins. When these branched-chain amino acids accumulated in the cells of the nematode due to inactivity of the BCAT-1 gene, it triggered a molecular signal cascade that resulted in increased longevity.

Another study has shown that a less pronounced effect was also achieved merely by increasing the quantity of branch chain amino acids in a worm’s diet, which triggered the same inviting results-though to a lesser extent because of unimpaired BCAT-1 gene. It is no doubt that it can be conserved in evolution and therefore existing in all organisms. It might be premature to start taking mega doses of branch chain amino acids, these are already used to treat liver damage and are also added to many sports nutrition products. Thus, there’s probably little danger in increasing one’s intake of them if you’re curious to experiment with the life-extending, vitality increasing benefits of these amino-acids.

Reference Mansfeld J, et al. Branched-chain amino acid catabolism is a conserved regulator of physiological ageing. Nature Comm., published online December 1^st 2015 https://www.ethz.ch/en/news-and-events/eth-news/ne...