Tuesday, December 26, 2006

Gene linked to longevity and preservation of brain

How to live to a ripe old age without losing your marbles TimesOnline 12/26/06 "An Israeli study involving 158 people who lived to 95 or beyond has found that those who inherit a particular version of the gene CETP are twice as likely to have a sharp and alert brain when they are elderly...They are also five times less likely than people with a different version of CETP to develop Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia, according to the study by a team at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine at Yeshiva University...If drugs could be developed which mimic the protective function of the CETP VV variant they could transform the quality of life of the ageing population...Nir Barzilai, director of the college’s Institute for Ageing Research... “We’ve shown that the same gene variant that helps people live to exceptional ages has the added benefit of helping them think clearly...CETP is a gene that makes the cholesterol ester protein, which in turn influences the size of the particles in which both “good” (high-density lipoprotein) and “bad” (low-density lipoprotein) cholesterol appear in the blood"

More evidence that if you want to live to 100, lifestyle might not be enough. CETP vv is present in 25% of centenarians. Also here again, with CETP, is a connection between forms of cholesterol production and maintenance and longevity.

A curious thing would be to find what genes associated with longevity are found in supercentenarians (those living to 110 and over). Studying supercentenarians might offer more insight into the aging process and longevity genes in particular than in centenarians.

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