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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