A gene for longevity

A study published on Science will allow to determine if an individual is predisposed to reach one hundred years of age, paving the way to personalized genomics

by F. C.

It was well known that the DNA determines our destiny, in part. Now we know the genetic profiles of individuals who will break the one hundred years of age mark. A study published on Science and carried out by the Biomedical Technology Institute of the Italian National Research Council (ITB-CNR), in collaboration with Boston University (BU) and financially supported by the MultiMedica group. The results have been published after ten years of research in a team directed by Thomas Perls from BU.

“Paola Sebastian, from BU, analyzed the gene variations in about one thousand Americans agfed 95 to 119”, says Annibale Puca, author and researcher with ITB-CNR and MultiMedica, “and identified 150 variants which, simultaneously analyzed by means of an innovative calculation, can predict if an individual will break the 100 years mark with a probability of 80%”.

Which are the genetic features of a centenarian “An authentic genetic advantage in a successful ageing needs a few modification of the genetic patrimony, In other words, there is not just one feature which, when it is inherited, brings a high probability to reach the 100 years of age.

Combinations of genetic variants affect both disease and resistance to disease. A detailed analysis of the centenarians’ genetic profiles, the so-called “genetic signatures”, showed 19 shared by subjects with similar features, such as survival age, resistance to Alzheimer, cardiovascular disease and hypertension”.

“These “genetic signatures” represent a further step towards personalized genomics and predictive medicine” says Thomas Perls, “because the proposed analytical method may be useful for the screening of several disease and to personalize pharmacological treatments”.

The research team also discovered some differences in the genetic profiles of the examined centenarians. “Surprisingly, one group displays a different profile, which may be explained with a strong contribution by environmental factors, or gene variants which, if present, strongly favor longevity; the latter hypothesis is more likely, due to the high rate of longevity in the family of these subjects. It will be extremely interesting to further study the genome of these centenarians with a “normal” genetic profile, in order to assess the potential presence of more variants with a high impact on longevity”, concluds Puca.