It is possible that the elixir of youth is already inside our body, and it is located in the intestine. Experts say that "good" bacteria can help in developing a radical treatment for aging.

Certain varieties of intestinal bacteria can prolong life expectancy, at least in microscopic worms, as shown by clinical studies. Scientists have identified bacterial genes that prolong the life of worms, and some of them also protect these microorganisms from the growth of tumors. The food additives containing these intestinal bacteria may one day begin to be used to slow the natural aging processes, according to scientists at the University of Texas.

They emphasize that the scientific community with great enthusiasm is exploring the internal links of our body with millions of microbes - the microbiome of the intestine, which affects numerous functions of the body, including cognitive activity and metabolic activity, as well as aging. In the course of the new work, researchers tried to find out whether a genetic composition of a microbiome is also important in determining life expectancy. Since such experiments are very difficult to conduct on mammals, the researchers studied microscopic laboratory worms C. Elegans, which are no longer than the size of a pinhead. However, they have some common characteristics with human biology.

The effect of each gene of the bacterium E. Coli of 4,000 and the consequences of its removal. When worms were fed mutated bacteria, the life expectancy of worms increased.

Of the nearly 4,000 investigated genes of bacteria, 29 at their removal increased the lifespan of worms. 12 of these mutant bacteria also protected worms from tumor growth and the accumulation of beta-amyloid proteins, which is a characteristic of senile dementia in humans.

Further experiments also showed that some of the bacteria with deleted genes increased the lifespan of worms due to the effect on certain biological processes in their body associated with aging.

Source: MedikForum.

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