Pterocarpus marsupium extract extends replicative lifespan in budding yeast

The million-molecule challenge: a moonshot project to rapidly advance longevity intervention discovery

Targeting aging is the future of twenty-first century preventative medicine. Small molecule interventions that promote healthy longevity are known, but few are well-developed and discovery of novel, robust interventions has stagnated. To accelerate longevity intervention discovery and development, high-throughput systems are needed that can perform unbiased drug screening and directly measure lifespan and healthspan metrics in whole animals. C. elegans is a powerful model system for this type of drug discovery. Combined with automated data capture and analysis technologies, truly high-throughput longevity drug discovery is possible. In this perspective, we propose the "million-molecule challenge", an effort to quantitatively assess 1,000,000 interventions for longevity within five years. The WormBot-AI, our best-in-class robotics and AI data analysis platform, provides a tool to achieve the million-molecule challenge for pennies per animal tested.

Moringa induces its beneficial effect via hormesis

Moringa oleifera, a traditional Indian herb, is widely known for its capacity to induce antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and other chemoprotective effects in a broad range of biomedical models. These perspectives have led to an extensive number of studies using various moringa extracts to evaluate its capacity to protect biological systems from oxidative stress and to explore whether it could be used to slow the onset of numerous age-related conditions and diseases. Moringa extracts have also been applied to prevent damage to plants from oxidative and saline stresses, following hormetic dose–response patterns. The present paper provides the first integrated and mechanistically based assessment showing that moringa extracts commonly induce hormetic dose responses and that many, perhaps most, of the beneficial effects of moringa are due to its capacity to act as an hormetic agent.

Taurine deficiency as a driver of aging

Aging is associated with changes in circulating levels of various molecules, some of which remain undefined. We find that concentrations of circulating taurine decline with aging in mice, monkeys, and humans. A reversal of this decline through taurine supplementation increased the health span (the period of healthy living) and life span in mice and health span in monkeys. Mechanistically, taurine reduced cellular senescence, protected against telomerase deficiency, suppressed mitochondrial dysfunction, decreased DNA damage, and attenuated inflammaging. In humans, lower taurine concentrations correlated with several age-related diseases and taurine concentrations increased after acute endurance exercise. Thus, taurine deficiency may be a driver of aging because its reversal increases health span in worms, rodents, and primates and life span in worms and rodents. Clinical trials in humans seem warranted to test whether taurine deficiency might drive aging in humans.

Morusin and mulberrin extend the lifespans of yeast and C. elegans via suppressing nutrient-sensing pathways

Compounds with lifespan extension activity are rare, although increasing research efforts have been invested in this field to find ways to extend healthy lifespan. By applying a yeast-based high-throughput assay to identify the chronological lifespan extension activity of mulberry extracts rapidly, we demonstrated that a group of prenylated flavones, particularly morusin and mulberrin, could extend the chronological lifespan of budding yeast via a nutrient-dependent regime by at least partially targeting SCH9. Their antiaging activity could be extended to C. elegans by promoting its longevity, dependent on the full functions of genes akt-1 or akt-2. Moreover, additional benefits were observed from morusin- and mulberrin-treated worms, including increased reproduction without the influence of worm health (pumping rate, pumping decline, and reproduction span). In the human HeLa cell model, morusin and mulberrin inhibited the phosphorylation of p70S6K1, promoted autophagy, and slowed cell senescence. The molecular docking study showed that mulberrin and morusin bind to the same pocket of p70S6K1. Collectively, our findings open up a potential class of prenylated flavones performing their antiaging activity via nutrient-sensing pathways.

Yeast Chronological Lifespan: Longevity Regulatory Genes and Mechanisms

S. cerevisiae plays a pivotal role as a model system in understanding the biochemistry and molecular biology of mammals including humans. A considerable portion of our knowledge on the genes and pathways involved in cellular growth, resistance to toxic agents, and death has in fact been generated using this model organism. The yeast chronological lifespan (CLS) is a paradigm to study age-dependent damage and longevity. In combination with powerful genetic screening and high throughput technologies, the CLS has allowed the identification of longevity genes and pathways but has also introduced a unicellular “test tube” model system to identify and study macromolecular and cellular damage leading to diseases. In addition, it has played an important role in studying the nutrients and dietary regimens capable of affecting stress resistance and longevity and allowing the characterization of aging regulatory networks. The parallel description of the pro-aging roles of homologs of RAS, S6 kinase, adenylate cyclase, and Tor in yeast and in higher eukaryotes in S. cerevisiae chronological survival studies is valuable to understand human aging and disease. Here we review work on the S. cerevisiae chronological lifespan with a focus on the genes regulating age-dependent macromolecular damage and longevity extension.