Mitochondrial protein HUMANIN promotes health & longevity

[corybroo]

Interesting result reported at MedicalXpress

Study finds protein in mitochondria appears to regulate health and longevity

Some highlights:

The researchers examined humanin, a peptide encoded in the small genome of mitochondria

From experiments in laboratory animals to measurements in human patients, the multi-site collaboration demonstrates how higher levels of humanin in the body are connected to longer lifespans and better health. 

Humanin has long been known to help prevent many age-related diseases, and this is the first time that it has been shown that it can also increase lifespan

Humanin levels have previously been observed to decrease with age in many species. In this new study, the scientists observed higher levels of humanin in organisms predisposed to long lives, including the famously age-resistant naked mole rat, which experiences only a very slow decline in levels of humanin circulating in the body throughout its 30-year lifespan.

mice experience a 40% drop in humanin over the first 18 months of life, and primates such as rhesus macaques appeared to have a similarly dramatic drop in humanin between the ages of 19 and 25.

In humans, researchers observed this phenomenon of higher and more sustained levels of humanin in 18 children of centenarians, versus a control group of 19 children of non-centenarians.

In some species, including worms and mice, modifying their genes to produce higher amounts of humanin within their bodies was enough to significantly increase lifespans. But these longer-lived animals had fewer offspring. 

The researchers analyzed samples of cerebral spinal fluid from a small number of Alzheimer's patients and control individuals without dementia and noticed that humanin levels were much lower in the Alzheimer's patients. 

 

[Ron Put]

It's good to see a study like this, thanks.

But I believe that humanin also increases the growth of prostate cancer, and possibly other cancers.