Insects as Model in Aging Research By, Bharati Singh
May 21, 2015
Insects as Model in Aging Research
By, Bharati Singh
Outlines
• What is aging• Insects used• Hallmarks of aging• Anti-aging drugs• New research published
Aging is characterized by a progressive loss of physiological integrity, leading to impaired function
Insects used in aging research• Fruit fly(Drosophilla melanogaster)• Ant (Formicidae)• Wasp (Hymenoptera)
• Bees (Apis)
Why Drosophilla in ageing
• Share many of the same gene as human• Life cycle is so short• Similar brain process• Genome fully sequenced• Ease of culture
An ideal organism to study aging as the gene that regulate a fly’s lifespan have been found to closely parallel to those in human
Type of research into agingClass1: investigating agingClass2: working to slow agingClass3:working to reverse aging
Aging research has experienced remarkable advanced over recent years
Cancer and aging share common origin
Hallmarks of aging
Age related changes in mitochondria
Loss of proteostasis (protein homeostasis)
Carlos et al, Max planck institute for biology of ageing, Germany, 2013
Resveratrol does provide anti-aging benefits ,Study shows (journal of science,2011)
• Found in red wine• Naturally occuring
polyphenol antioxidant• Stimulates production
of SIRT1, (sirutin protein)
Red wine
Rapamycin: limited anti-aging effect (Journal of clinical investigation, July 25,2013)
• Known to increase life span in mice• Seems to be related to rapamycin’s supression
of tumors• Current efforts to develop therapies is to
target age related disorder
New research published
• Scientists offer new insight into neuron changes brought about by aging (PLOS ONE,BMC genomics, 22 jan, 2014)
• In Anti-Aging Breakthroughs, Scientists Reverse Aging in Mice, Worms (cell, 23 Dec,2013)
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