Gut Microbiome Associated With Healthy Aging

Researchers identify distinct signatures in the gut microbiome associated with either healthy or unhealthy aging trajectories, which predict survival in a population of older individuals.

The research team investigated gut microbiome, //phenotypic and clinical data from more than 9,000 people ranging from ages 18 and 101.

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‘This unique signature can predict patient survival in the latest decades of life’
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Particularly, longitudinal data from over 900 community-dwelling older individuals (78-98 years old) focused on tracking health and survival outcomes.

Findings showed that gut microbiomes, starting from mid to late adulthood, became increasingly unique (divergent from others) as individuals aged, in correspondence to a steady decline in the amount of core bacterial genera that humans share.

Results also revealed that though microbiomes' uniqueness increased with healthy aging, the metabolic functions carried out by them shared common traits.

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The microbiome signature's uniqueness highly correlated with various microbially-derived metabolites in blood plasma, including tryptophan-derived indole, known to extend lifespan in mice.

Blood levels of phenylacetylglutamine (metabolite highly elevated in the blood of centenarians) showed the strongest association with uniqueness.

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Dr. Tomasz Wilmanski, lead researcher, explains that this unique signature can predict patient survival in the latest decades of life. He adds that healthy individuals, around 80 years of age, had continued microbial drift toward a unique state, which was absent in less healthy individuals.

He further adds that the uniqueness pattern, starting in mid-life (40-50 years of age), is associated with a clear blood metabolomic signature which suggests that these microbiome changes may contribute directly to health as we age, and not just imply be diagnostic of healthy aging.

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Dr. Sean Gibbons, co-corresponding author, states "Prior results in microbiome-aging research appear inconsistent, with some reports showing a decline in core gut genera in centenarian populations, while others show relative stability of the microbiome up until the onset of aging-related declines in health."

He adds that their work resolves these inconsistencies by showing two distinct aging trajectories -

1) A decrease in core microbes with a rise in uniqueness in healthier individuals

2) The maintenance of core microbes in less healthy individuals.

Dr. Nathan Price, co-corresponding author, believes that this work will have major clinical implications for the monitoring and modification of gut microbiome health throughout a person's life.

Source-Medindia