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People who live to 100 years and beyond may have special gut bacteria that help prevent infections, according to a new Japanese study.
The results suggest that these bacteria and the specific compounds they produce – known as “secondary bile acids” – could contribute to a healthy gut and, in turn, to healthy aging.
Yet a lot more research is needed to find out whether these bacteria promote an unusually long lifespan. The current results, published Thursday (July 29) in the journal Nature, only show an association between these intestinal bacteria and life beyond 100; they don’t prove that these bacteria made people live longer, said study lead author Dr Kenya Honda, professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at Keio University School of Medicine. in Tokyo.
“While this may suggest that these bile acid-producing bacteria may contribute to a longer lifespan, we have no data showing the cause-and-effect relationship between them,” Honda told Live Science.
Related: How long can humans live?
Gut microbe “signature”
The community of bacteria and other microorganisms that live in the gut, known as the gut microbiome, is known to play a role in our health and change with age. For example, having less diversity in types of gut bacteria has been linked to frailty in the elderly. But researchers suspected that people who turn 100 may have special gut bacteria that contribute to good health. Indeed, centenarians tend to be at lower risk for chronic diseases and infections than older people who do not reach this stage.
In the new study, researchers looked at the gut microbiota of 160 centenarians, an average of 107 years old. They compared the gut microbiota of centenarians to that of 112 people aged 85 to 89 and 47 people aged 21 to 55.
They found that the centenarians had a distinct “signature” of gut microbes that were not seen in the other two age groups. For example, some species of bacteria were enriched or depleted in centenarians compared to the other two groups.
The researchers then analyzed the gut metabolites (products of metabolism) in the three groups and found that the centenarians had significantly higher levels of secondary bile acids compared to the other two groups.
Bile is the yellow-green fluid made by the liver and stored in the gall bladder, according to National Institutes of Health. Bile acids are compounds in the bile that help digestion, especially fat. After the liver produces bile acids, they are released into the intestine, where bacteria chemically change them into secondary bile acids, according to a 2009 article in the journal. Diabetic treatments.
Researchers have found particularly high levels of a secondary bile acid called isoallolithocholic acid (isoalloLCA) in centenarians. The authors were unsure what metabolic process the bacteria were using to produce isoalloLCA, so they set out to identify the pathway. They screened bacterial intestinal strains of a 110-year-old man who had particularly high levels of secondary bile acids and found that bacteria belonging to a family called Odoribacteraceae produced isoalloLCA.
Additionally, isoalloLCA has been shown to have potent antimicrobial properties, meaning it may inhibit the growth of “bad” bacteria in the gut. In experiments in laboratory dishes and in mice, the authors found that isoalloLCA slows the growth of Clostridium difficile, a bacteria that causes severe diarrhea and inflammation of the colon. IsoalloLCA also inhibited the growth of enterococci resistant to vancomycin, a type of bacteria resistant to antibiotics known to cause infections in hospitals.
The results suggest that isoalloLCA may contribute to a healthy gut by preventing the growth of bad bacteria.
They also suggest that these bacteria or their bile acids could treat or prevent It’s hard infection in people, Honda said, although more research is needed to show it.
If these bile acid-producing bacteria contribute to a healthy gut, they could one day be used as probiotics to improve human health, Honda said. He noted that these bacteria appear safe, as they do not produce toxins or contain antibiotic resistance genes.
It is not known how centenarians come to acquire these beneficial bacteria, but genetics and diet may play a role in the makeup of people’s gut microbiota, Honda said.
The study did not collect information about participants’ diet, exercise habits, or drug use, all of which could affect the gut microbiota and help explain the link, the authors said.
Future studies that follow large groups of people over time could further probe the link between these bacteria and longevity.
Originally posted on Live Science.
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