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Amazing discovery makes scientists rethink which genes control aging

The scientific team of the National Institutes of Health found in a study on fruit flies that only 30% of the genes are genes that can set the animal’s internal clock and act as a sign of aging. Scientists have discovered that bacteria may be able to drive the activities of many genes that mark aging in flies.

To better understand the role of bacteria in health and disease, researchers at the National Institutes of Health fed fruit flies with antibiotics and monitored the lifelong activity of hundreds of genes that scientists traditionally believed to control aging.

To their surprise, antibiotics not only prolonged the lifespan of fruit flies, but also greatly changed the activity of many of these genes. Their results showed that only about 30% of the genes traditionally associated with aging set the animal’s internal clock, while the rest reflected the body’s response to bacteria.

Dr. Edward Giniger, a senior investigator at the National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Stroke (NINDS) of the National Institutes of Health, and the senior author of this study, said: “For decades, scientists have been developing a A proposition list of common aging genes. These genes are believed to control the aging process of the entire animal kingdom, from worms to mice to humans. We were shocked to discover that only about 30% of these genes may be directly involved in the aging process. We It is hoped that these results will help medical researchers better understand the forces supporting several age-related diseases.”

These results happened by accident. Dr. Giniger’s team studied the genetics of aging in a fruit fly called Drosophila melanogaster. Previously, the team demonstrated how an overactive immune system can play a key role in the nerve damage that underlies several aging brain diseases. However, the study did not study the role that bacteria might play in this process.

 

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