Getting older is a natural part of the biological process. But it makes us frail. Aging is actually the biggest risk factor for several diseases: cancer, dementia and cardiovascular disease, to name a few. And sick people cost our society a lot. So should we rather hold onto the youthful thing? And is it even possible? Maybe. For now, Norwegian researchers have managed to smooth out the aging process in older laboratory animals. – Conceptually, this is very interesting, says Hilde Loge Nilsen. She is a professor and section leader at the University of Oslo. Must help our cells There are many who research, and have researched, aging. And most people want to achieve the same thing: To find a way to slow down the process. It is in our cells that aging occurs. In there, life-necessary things take place, which get worse the older we get. In addition, the genetic material in the cells becomes more unstable. The trick is to help the cells to continue to function as well as possible, even when we age, explains Loge Nilsen. And the Norwegian researchers have now succeeded in doing this in roundworms. Roundworms and Parkinson’s disease The researchers conducted various experiments on roundworms, which are small caterpillar-like animals. In the technical language, they are called nematodes. Roundworms live for about three weeks. But despite their short lifespans, they still go through a life course similar to our own. In the study, the researchers investigated the development of Parkinson’s disease in older roundworms. The findings show, among other things, that you can inhibit many of the processes in the cells that drive aging forward. And the researchers achieved this with the help of various substances in krill oil. – We have found that krill oil, a natural extract, inhibits many of the processes that drive aging in nematodes. We have also seen this in human cells in culture. By using a so-called aging clock, we see that the speed of the processes slows down for the animals that receive krill oil, says the professor to news. Professor Hilde Loge Nilsen (right) together with doctoral student Veronica Suaste Morales. Morales has calculated biological age in the experiments and is co-author of the article. Photo: Ine Eriksen / UiO Roundworms do not get Parkinson’s disease, but they show some of the same signs that people with this disease have, explains Loge Nilsen. – We can measure the signs, and then we see that nematodes that receive krill oil do not lose nerve cells in the brain as they get older. The roundworms therefore preserve memory and neuromuscular function. They are generally much more active when old than other roundworms. A number of clinical studies will also show documented health-promoting effects of krill oil in humans. Socially effective? The researchers behind the new study believe that we must try to think anew when it comes to the elderly wave and the challenges it entails. – More elderly people increase the pressure on the healthcare system. This is because many of our most common diseases are caused by ageing. But what if we could delay the first heart attack by 5 years? But are these results transferable to humans? – We know much of what we know about aging mechanisms because of animal experiments. Including from roundworms. These animals are also an excellent tool for studying interventions. Some of these have also been shown to have an effect in humans, says the researcher. They are now working further to be able to carry out similar studies in humans.
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New research shows that it may be possible to slow down the aging process – news Trøndelag
