A study carried out by an international team led by researchers from Salamanca has shown that the microbiota or intestinal flora can significantly affect the life span of their hosts. Using the worm 'C. elegans', which is commonly used as a model in biomedical studies, researchers have determined that this nematode lives 50 percent less when its intestinal flora produces antioxidants. The work has just been published in the prestigious magazine specialized in aging 'Aging'.
It has been known for years that the gut microbiota plays an extremely important role in human health. Numerous studies have focused on analyzing the composition of the bacterial community and other microorganisms in the human intestinal tract. In this sense, various studies have related alterations in the communities of typical intestinal bacteria with sensitivity to immune problems, obesity or cancer, among others.
“In our work we have used the nematode worm 'C. elegans 'to investigate the effect that the intestinal microbiota exerts on the aging process ”, explains Adolfo Sánchez-Blanco, first author of the work, who details that' C. elegans' lives naturally in the soil, where it feeds on bacteria that colonize its gut and establish microbial communities.
'C. elegans' is an animal just one millimeter in length that is widely used in biomedical studies. In fact, in just over a decade, three Nobel Prizes have been awarded to researchers who made their discoveries in this organism.
A fundamental limitation when studying the importance of the intestinal microbiota in different aspects of health is the complexity derived from the thousands of species of bacteria and microorganisms that live in our body. To simplify this problem, the researchers used the worm 'C. elegans 'and studied the extent to which two different bacteria,' E. coli 'and' B. subtilis ', can influence the aging of' C. elegans'.
According to their results, the worms kept with 'B. subtilis 'live 50 percent longer than worms kept with' E. coli '. When analyzing the cause of this difference in longevity, they observed that the cellular content of the worms kept with 'E. coli 'is abnormally less oxidized than the cellular contents of worms kept with' B. subtilis'. Specifically, they found that 'E. coli 'naturally produces the powerful antioxidant coenzyme Q, while' B. subtilis' does not produce this antioxidant.
"Our results indicate that the intestinal microbiota can affect the aging process of the host animal and detail that, in the case studied, the nematode 'C. elegans 'lives considerably less in the presence of a flora composed of' E. coli 'than of a flora composed of' B. subtilis 'due to the excessive antioxidant effect that coenzyme Q produced by' E. coli 'generates ”, emphasizes Sánchez-Blanco.
Likewise, the work suggests that the excessive use of antioxidants could cause a shortening of life, that is, "an effect exactly opposite to what is commonly thought." "In fact, coenzyme Q is a dietary supplement commonly used for its antioxidant effects," he adds.
An international and interdisciplinary team
Adolfo Sánchez-Blanco, the main author of the work, is from Salamanca and currently works as a professor of Biology at the University of Hartford (Connecticut, USA). This work was carried out mainly in the Cancer Research Center (CIC) of Salamanca where Adolfo Sánchez-Blanco was working from 2011 to 2014 with a JAE-Doc contract from the CSIC, in the group of Dr. Faustino Mollinedo, who is also one of the authors of the work.
Also participating in the study were Alberto Rodríguez-Matellán (currently at the Severo Ochoa Molecular Biology Center), Ana González-Paramás and Susana González-Manzano (both belonging to the Nutrition and Bromatology Unit of the Faculty of Pharmacy of the University of Salamanca ), as well as Stuart K. Kim, professor of genetics at Stanford University (USA).
Sánchez-Blanco studied Biology at the University of Salamanca but carried out her research career in the US where she completed both her doctorate (at the University of Connecticut) and her post-doctorate (at Stanford University). In 2011, and after 14 years researching in the US, he moved to Salamanca with a CSIC contract but in 2014 he had to return to the US after finishing his research contract and due to the lack of prospects to finance his work
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