It may seem counterintuitive, but scientists say the key to staying past 100 is infection prevention expertise.
Researchers who studied the DNA of seven centenarians found that they all had one thing in common: they fought off a variety of bugs and viruses.
Their subjects had an extreme variety of B cells, immune cells, and antibodies eager to fight previous enemies.
Scientists are trying to figure out whether catching and beating infections is the key, or whether centenarians are just genetically stronger in the immune department.
The preceding analysis highlighted a number of recurring themes of the centenary
The study’s lead author, Paola Sebastiani, a biostatistician at Tufts University in Boston, noted the immune profiles of centenarians represent “a protracted historical past of exposure to infections and the possibility of recovery from them.”
“We think that centenarians have protective elements that allow them to survive the Spanish flu, to survive Covid,” he told Every dayMail.com.
The study, which also involved scientists from Boston University, tested blood samples from 7 centenarians from 100 to 119 years ago.
The team removed an essential part of the individuals’ immune systems: peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs), a type of immune cell that originates in the bone marrow.
The researchers then subjected these immune cells to a series of evaluations, evaluating them based on blood samples from two youthful subjects, each of whom had neither excessive longevity nor hundreds of years of their own home historical past.
The team noticed a dramatic shift in the mix of immune cells in centenarians. significantly more B cells than CD4+ T cells, indicating that their immune systems have long earned the hard expertise of warding off clean and environmental infections.
All told, the study looked at the proportion of 13 subtypes of B cells and T cells, noting a major shift in the ratio away from innate fighters and toward extra-adapted, skilled cell types.
“Centenarians have distinct, extremely practical immune methods that are effectively adapted to historical past of insults,” the examine concludes, “allowing for significant longevity.”
But scientists can’t say definitively whether or not their results represent a hereditary predisposition toward a particularly long life, just proof of their century-old immune-tested methods.
“We know there are a lot of heritage elements that centenarians share,” Sebastiani told the Mail. “We’re usually not ready, but to make a direct connection between these elements and what they see in their blood, through their immune cell types.”
Sebastiani and his staff, however, identified 25 specific genes that were much more energetic over the century, revealing a genetic pattern of extreme longevity.
Among them, they discovered a much better use of the gene STK17A:recognized to be concerned with the repair of broken DNA and HLA-DPA1a gene that makes antigens wanted to mark infections in the body.
They also discovered one gene, S100A4:it was completely special for the centenary. S100A4:a part S100 is a household studied with age-related disease each linked to longevity and metabolic regulation.
Finally, the staff assessment was revealed last Friday The Lancetadmits that “we cannot decide whether this EL [Extreme Longevity] Special patterns are the causes of extreme human longevity or the effect of a maximum previous age.”
According to Sebastiani, the trick may be to develop new research in which future centenarians are measured and observed over time, a process that is already underway.
“We have several studies in which we have recorded centennial generations,” Sebastiani said. “Many of them will be centenarians themselves, and we collect their blood over time.”
“So one day, hopefully soon, we’ll have a bigger answer about the heritability of those traits.”