Ageing Could Be A Thing Of The Past

Are we about to enter the age of Methuselah? Scientists think they may be on the verge of slowing down - or even stopping - the ageing process by isolating a genetic off ‘switch’. 

Scientists have known for a long time that ‘epigenetic’ changes - chemical alterations to DNA made by external environmental factors - are important to ageing. But now researchers at Kings College London have discovered four distinct genes - nicknamed the Father Time genes - that decide how fast we age. They are controlled by such factors as diet and other environmental and lifestyle variables and can be altered from an early age.

Now it is believed this could lead to anti-ageing drugs. 

Dr Jordana Bell, one of the leaders of the study explained: ‘We found that epigenetic changes associate with age-related traits that have previously been used to define biological age. We identified many age-related epigenetic changes, but four seemed to impact the rate of healthy ageing and potential longevity and we can use these findings as potential markers of ageing,’ she said. ‘These results can help understand the biological mechanisms underlying healthy ageing and age-related disease, and future work will explore how environmental effects can affect these epigenetic changes,’ she added. 

The team’s work is reported in the online journal Public Library of Science Genetics ( PLOSGENETICS) and is based on the study of the changes in the DNA of 172 twins aged 32 to 80.

Twins are used because they share the same genes - so if they show different characteristics it is like that the cause is environmental rather than genetic.

The researchers found 490 age-related epigenetic changes and tied these to four genes linked to cholesterol, lung function and maternal lifespan. These were also present in a group of younger twins, which suggest these changes are triggered early in life. 

Professor Tim Spector, director of the Department of Twin Research at King's College, said: ‘This study is the first glimpse of the potential that large twin studies have to find the key genes involved in ageing, how they can be modified by lifestyle and start to develop anti-ageing therapies. The future will be very exciting for age research.’