Scientists are harnessing the ability of the worm nervous system protein NPR-8 to control the expression of collagen, the primary building block of skin, bone and connective tissue in many animals, to slow human aging and extend life spans amid global warming.
Research in the nematode worm C. elegans suggested that NPR-8, like nervous system receptor proteins found in other species including humans, is behind the long-known phenomenon of animals living longer in colder climates than in warmer ones.
lead author Yiyong (Ben) Liu, assistant professor, WSU says “Based on animal studies, scientists predict that human life spans will shorten in the future as climate change increases ambient temperatures, possible to intervene in this [nervously regulated] process to extend human life span as temperature rises”.
Researchers observed small worms living in soil lacking NPR-8 fewer skin wrinkles
They also unexpectedly found that mutant worms raised at a warm temperature of 25 degrees Celsius had increased collagen expression and lived longer than wild-type worms, which did not happen when the worms were kept at 20 or 15 degrees Celsius.
This prompted scientists to conduct more experiments to study the role of neural regulation of collagens in aging and longevity.
Durai Sellgounder says “What we saw was that the absence of NPR-8 caused an increase in collagen expression, which increased the worms’ resistance to stress and lifespan, and made them appear younger than wild-type worms that were the same biological age”.
In one experiment, the researchers reintroduced NPR-8 into mutant worms kept at 25 degrees Celsius and found that it reverted the worms’ skin from smooth to wrinkled and significantly shortened the animals’ extended lifespan.
They further showed that the extended lifespan of NPR-8 mutant worms also persisted under heat stress conditions, with the mutant worms surviving significantly longer than wild-type worms when moved to a 35 degree Celsius environment.
Further experiments identified specific neurons responsible for regulating lifespan in response to high temperatures and pointed to increased expression of collagens as the driver of longer lifespans at high temperatures.
Given earlier findings showing that worms lacking NPR-8 were more resistant to infection and oxidative stress, the researchers believe that the increase in collagen expression controlled by NPR-8 increases the animals’ resistance to stressful conditions such as excessive heat.
Their next step is to delve deeper into the underlying mechanisms of how increased collagen production increases resistance to stress.
Written by: Vaishali Verma
