{"id":16539,"date":"2019-07-05T13:17:41","date_gmt":"2019-07-05T11:17:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.embl.de\/?p=16539"},"modified":"2024-03-22T12:08:17","modified_gmt":"2024-03-22T11:08:17","slug":"decoding-ageing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/alumni\/decoding-ageing\/","title":{"rendered":"Decoding ageing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It was more by serendipity than design that Alessandro Ori came to be studying the molecular mechanisms associated with ageing and longevity. During his postdoc at EMBL, he ventured down a research rabbit hole that was to shape the course of his career in ways he hadn\u2019t anticipated, leading not to rabbits but to the naked mole-rat, <em>Heterocephalus glaber<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Prior to becoming a group leader at the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.leibniz-fli.de\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Leibniz Institute on Aging \u2013 Fritz Lipmann Institute<\/a> (FLI), in Jena, Germany, Ori worked on mass spectrometry-based proteomics in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.embl.de\/research\/units\/scb\/beck\/index.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Beck group<\/a> in Heidelberg for five years. One of the group\u2019s main areas of research was the nuclear pore complex \u2013 a large complex of proteins that allows the transport of molecules into and out of the cell\u2019s nucleus. This led to a collaboration with Martin Hetzer of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.salk.edu\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Salk Institute<\/a> in California, USA. Hetzer was interested in studying how the nuclear pore was affected by ageing.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was one of many side projects I was working on at the time,\u201d Ori explains. \u201cAs part of my postdoc I developed mass spectrometry techniques to quantify precisely the proteins that form the nuclear pore. Working with Martin Hetzer, we decided to look at the brains of young and old rats. Then the project expanded in scope from the nuclear pore to a proteome-wide analysis, and we also started to integrate genomics approaches. I found myself somehow sidetracked into the ageing field, and it suddenly became very important!\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>I found myself sidetracked into the ageing field<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>When the time came for Ori to leave EMBL, Lenhard Rudolph at FLI was looking for someone to set up a proteomics facility there, and to work on proteomics in the context of ageing. Ori realised that this was no longer a side project but a great opportunity to immerse himself more fully in this area of research.<\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-size: 30px;\">Small but long-lived<\/span><\/h2>\n<figure id=\"attachment_16546\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-16546\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-16546\" src=\"https:\/\/news.embl.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Naked-mole-rats.jpg\" alt=\"Naked mole-rats\" width=\"300\" height=\"224\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-16546\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Naked mole-rats. PHOTO: Karol Szafranski\/FLI<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>At first glance, a small, wrinkly, hairless rodent with tiny eyes and ears might seem to have little in common with humans. Or with bees, for that matter. However, like us, naked mole-rats are exceptionally long lived relative to their body mass (up to 30 years, compared to 2\u20133 years for mice and about 12 for guinea pigs). And, like bees, they have a eusocial lifestyle: they live in colonies comprising a queen, several breeding males, and up to 300 male and female workers. They are native to the savannahs of East Africa, where they live underground in\u00a0extensive tunnel systems.<\/p>\n<p>Naked mole-rats have a number of special characteristics that differentiate them from other rodents, and indeed from humans, and make them fascinating subjects for study: they are fertile throughout their lives and are highly resistant to infection, as well as to diseases such as cancer and diabetes. These traits, combined with their extraordinary longevity, make them one of the most interesting model organisms for ageing research.<\/p>\n<h2>Do they age?<\/h2>\n<p>They live long, but do they age? This question was a source of much debate and speculation in the scientific community, and one that Ori and his collaborators sought to answer definitively. Using a combination of proteomic and genomic approaches, they compared liver samples from naked mole-rats with those from guinea pigs and humans. They also compared the livers of young and old naked mole-rats.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe found that naked mole-rats and closely related species showed differences in their mitochondria \u2013 the cellular components that generate energy,\u201d says Ori. \u201cOur data also clearly showed age-dependent changes in protein levels in the livers of young and old individuals. The molecular signature is actually similar to other organisms; it\u2019s just that it\u2019s happening at a different pace. It\u2019s slower.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps one of the most significant findings of Ori\u2019s research is that ageing affects similar molecular pathways in the livers of naked mole-rats and humans. Specifically, ageing affects a group of proteins responsible for eliminating toxic substances from the body. However, whether or not these pathways affect the health of old naked mole-rats remains to be investigated.<\/p>\n<h2>Extending healthspan<\/h2>\n<figure id=\"attachment_16547\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-16547\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-16547\" src=\"https:\/\/news.embl.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Ori-et-al-1.jpg\" alt=\"Photo of Alessandro Ori, Joanna Kirkpatrick and Ivonne Heinze\" width=\"310\" height=\"271\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Ori-et-al-1.jpg 310w, https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Ori-et-al-1-300x262.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 310px) 100vw, 310px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-16547\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">EMBL alumni Alessandro Ori and Joanna Kirkpatrick, with collaborator Ivonne Heinze (left). PHOTO: Kerstin Wagner\/FLI<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Ultimately, the goal of ageing research is not necessarily to extend lifespan in humans, but to extend healthspan: the part of life that we live healthily. \u201cThe overall aim is to find fundamental molecular mechanisms that have a causative role in the ageing process,\u201d explains Ori. He emphasises the importance of causation: \u201cWe need to identify the molecular changes that are causing ageing, not those that are a consequence of ageing. This has always been one of the trickiest things in the ageing field. If you compare only young and old \u2013 extreme age groups \u2013 you cannot distinguish that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ori is clear about what is needed if this research is to translate into clinical applications. \u201cIf we can find some early event that has a cascade effect, we can try to intervene pharmacologically. You don\u2019t want to have interventions that are effective only if administered from the beginning of life. That\u2019s not what a successful intervention would look like. The aim is to identify populations or age groups that are at risk, and to extend their healthspan by treating them in old age.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>Science and society<\/h2>\n<p>Professor Dame Linda Partridge, Director of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ucl.ac.uk\/biosciences\/departments\/genetics-evolution-and-environment\/institute-healthy-ageing-iha\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Institute of Healthy Ageing<\/a> at University College London, echoed some of Ori\u2019s sentiments at a recent Science and Society talk in Heidelberg, \u2018What if getting old didn\u2019t mean getting ill?\u2019 Partridge, whose model organism of choice is the fruit fly <em>Drosophila<\/em>, is part of the quest to find clinical solutions to tackle the growing burden of ill health among older people. Like Ori, her goal is not to make people live longer; that\u2019s happening anyway, with the increasing trend in average lifespan projected to continue until 2030. \u201cPeople are living longer, but the added years tend to be years of disability and ill health. What we\u2019re trying to do is find ways of compressing that period of ill health at the end of life,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n<p>Her own research focuses on the genetics of ageing, which she believes may be the key to tackling ageing-related disease. After all, some organisms \u2013 for example, the sea anemone and the freshwater hydra \u2013 seem not to age at all, showing no signs of deterioration over time. \u201cWe know that the difference between these species that either age very slowly or don\u2019t age at all, and species that age more quickly, is genetic,\u201d says Partridge. \u201cSo we\u2019re trying to find genes that influence the rate of ageing. They\u2019re clearly there, if we can just discover what they are.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Ageing is a surprisingly malleable process<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Partridge believes that the results from animal studies, combined with the FDA\u2019s recent recognition of ageing as a disease \u2013 which will facilitate clinical drug trials \u2013 offer hope that effective preventative therapies may be on the horizon. \u201cAgeing is a surprisingly malleable process and we can modulate it genetically,\u201d she explains. \u201cIn animals, we can slow ageing through diet, genetic mutations, and drugs, and thus protect them against diverse diseases. We\u2019re hoping that this is pointing towards a preventative medicine for people.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>The magic bullet<\/h2>\n<p>As Ori returns to his lab, and his naked mole-rats, he is optimistic that he is on the right path: \u201cIf we can understand the fundamental mechanisms of ageing at the proteome level \u2013 both the causes and the consequences \u2013 I think we can find the magic bullet.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The naked mole-rat as a model organism in ageing research<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":68,"featured_media":16545,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,17593],"tags":[862,80,863,45,60],"embl_taxonomy":[],"class_list":["post-16539","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","category-people-perspectives","tag-ageing","tag-alumni","tag-naked-mole-rat","tag-proteomics","tag-science-and-society"],"acf":{"article_intro":"<p>Ageing, longevity, the naked mole-rat and us<\/p>\n","related_links":false,"featured":true,"show_featured_image":false,"field_target_display":"embl","field_article_language":{"value":"english","label":"English"},"source_article":false,"in_this_article":false,"press_contact":"None","article_translations":false,"languages":""},"embl_taxonomy_terms":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Decoding ageing | EMBL<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"EMBL alumnus Alessandro Ori studies ageing in the naked mole-rat, to understand the fundamental mechanisms of ageing at the proteome level.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/alumni\/decoding-ageing\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Decoding ageing | EMBL\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"EMBL alumnus Alessandro Ori studies ageing in the naked mole-rat, to understand the fundamental mechanisms of ageing at the proteome level.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/alumni\/decoding-ageing\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"EMBL\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/embl.org\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-07-05T11:17:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-03-22T11:08:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Decoding-ageing_ib.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"620\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"425\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Cella Carr\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@embl\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@embl\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Cella Carr\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"NewsArticle\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/alumni\/decoding-ageing\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/alumni\/decoding-ageing\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Cella Carr\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/3bb76de286246270a71cf08b368e0594\"},\"headline\":\"Decoding ageing\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-07-05T11:17:41+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-03-22T11:08:17+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/alumni\/decoding-ageing\/\"},\"wordCount\":1267,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/alumni\/decoding-ageing\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Decoding-ageing_ib.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"ageing\",\"alumni\",\"naked mole-rat\",\"proteomics\",\"science and society\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Alumni\",\"People &amp; 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