Researchers at the University of Rochester have successfully transferred a longevity gene from naked mole rats to mice, resulting in improved health and an extension of the mouse’s lifespan. Mole rats can live ten times longer than mice .
Naked mole rats, known for their long lifespans and exceptional resistance to age-related diseases, have long captured the attention of the scientific community. By introducing a specific gene responsible for enhanced cellular repair and protection into mice, the Rochester researchers have opened exciting possibilities for unlocking the secrets of aging and extending human lifespan.
“Our study provides a proof of principle that unique longevity mechanisms that evolved in long-lived mammalian species can be exported to improve the lifespans of other mammals,” says Vera Gorbunova, the Doris Johns Cherry Professor of biology and medicine at Rochester. Gorbunova, along with Andrei Seluanov, a professor of biology, and their colleagues, report in a study published in Nature that they successfully transferred a gene responsible for making high molecular weight hyaluronic acid (HMW-HA) from a naked mole rat to mice. This led to improved health and an approximate 4.4 percent increase in median lifespan for the mice.
A unique mechanism for cancer resistance
Naked mole rats are mouse-sized rodents that have exceptional longevity for rodents of their size; they can live up to 41 years, nearly ten times as long as similar-size rodents.
The researchers previously discovered that HMW-HA is one mechanism responsible for naked mole rats’ unusual resistance to cancer. Compared to mice and humans, naked mole rats have about ten times more HMW-HA in their bodies. When the researchers removed HMW-HA from naked mole rat cells, the cells were more likely to form tumors.
The researchers found that the mice that had the naked mole rat version of the gene had better protection against both spontaneous tumors and chemically induced skin cancer. The mice also had improved overall health and lived longer compared to regular mice. As the mice with the naked mole rat version of the gene aged, they had less inflammation in different parts of their bodies—inflammation being a hallmark of aging—and maintained a healthier gut.
While more research is needed on exactly why HMW-HA has such beneficial effects, the researchers believe it is due to HMW-HA’s ability to directly regulate the immune system.
The next goal is to transfer this benefit to humans. They believe they can accomplish this through two routes: either by slowing down degradation of HMW-HA or by enhancing HMW-HA synthesis.
“We already have identified molecules that slow down hyaluronan degradation and are testing them in pre-clinical trials,” Seluanov says. “We hope that our findings will provide the first, but not the last, example of how longevity adaptations from a long-lived species can be adapted to benefit human longevity and health.”
Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
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I am not saying this is not a better gene variant, but this is not why naked mole rats live so long. They live long primarily because they are effectively coldblooded. That is why they don’t need hair. We know body temperature is a major component determining lifespan. Those bowhead whales that live past 200 years, are 4 degrees cooler (92.8 deg F) than their closest relatives. Those relatives, Right Whales, are 96.8 deg F, and live to around 70 years.
But there is even better evidence. Most of the interventions on mice that extend their lives, also lower their body temperature. Calorie restriction, intermittent fasting, metformin, and rapamycin all reduce temperature. But that is not the best evidence. Scientists at Scripps modified mice to be 0.5 degrees cooler, and they lived 30% longer. Then some scientists reporting in Nature Metabolism in April 2022 tested mice and hamsters and verified that temperature is the driver rather than metabolic rate. Those often go hand in hand, because most energy of mammals and birds is used for thermal regulation.
The reason we feel terrible or even die when our body temperature deviates from fairly tight bounds is that our enzymes need that range to operate and perform essential processes. We would have to replace the genes that make our enzymes, to permit a lower operating temperature or wider range. Probably would need a wider range, because even if generally cooler, our muscles would warm up when we run and such. Also, the temperature that gives us heat exhaustion may be lower, if we don’t broaden the range while getting cooler. It would also be pointless if our mental processes slowed by the same amount as life was extended, because it would just look like life was in fast-forward, and would feel just as short.
The average person of European decent is 1.5% neanderthal by genetics. Does this mean the average long lived human of the future will be 1.5% naked mole rat as well?
People stepping up to become transgenic mole rats. Didn’t you ever see “the fly”?
Seriously. I love life, but I won’t go kicking and screaming when it is my time.
I’ve got my credit card out, hurry up.
Of course, if we do become able to live a thousand years or so, we are going to spend many centuries of it wondering what the hell we were thinking when we made all these immortal mice.
That’s extremely encouraging, especially since this ISN’T the NMR’s unique form of ribosome, that would be rather hard to achieve in humans short of germ line genetic engineering. This could probably be achieved in vivo in already extant humans.
Me, for instance.