X-Message-Number: 31788
Date: Wed, 1 Jul 2009 22:07:34 -0700 (PDT)
From: 
Subject: Biological 'Fountain Of Youth' Found In New World Bat Caves

Biological 'Fountain Of Youth' Found In New World Bat Caves

ScienceDaily (July 1, 2009) - Scientists from Texas are batty over a new 
discovery which could lead to the single most important medical breakthrough in 
human history-significantly longer lifespans. The discovery, featured on the 
cover of the July 2009 print issue of The FASEB Journal, shows that proper 
protein folding over time in long-lived bats explains why they live 
significantly longer than other mammals of comparable size, such as mice.

Senescence

"Ultimately we are trying to discover what underlying mechanisms allow for some 
animal species to live a very long time with the hope that we might be able to 
develop therapies that allow people to age more slowly," said Asish Chaudhuri, 
Professor of Biochemistry, VA Medical Center, San Antonio, Texas and the senior 
researcher involved in the work.

Asish and colleagues made their discovery by extracting proteins from the livers
of two long-lived bat species (Tadarida brasiliensis and Myotis velifer) and 
young adult mice and exposed them to chemicals known to cause protein 
misfolding. After examining the proteins, the scientists found that the bat 
proteins exhibited less damage than those of the mice, indicating that bats have
a mechanism for maintaining proper structure under extreme stress.

"Maybe Juan Ponce De Leon wasn't too far off the mark when he searched Florida 
for the Fountain of Youth," said Gerald Weissmann, M.D., Editor-in-Chief of The 
FASEB Journal. "As it turns out, one of these bat species lives out its long 
life in Florida. Since bats are rodents with wings, this chemical clue as to why
bats beat out mice in the aging game should point scientists to the source of 
this elusive fountain."

Journal reference:

FASEB J. 2009 Feb 24. [Epub ahead of print]
(The FASEB Journal. 2009;23:2317-2326.)

The long lifespan of two bat species is correlated with resistance to protein 
oxidation and enhanced protein homeostasis.

Salmon AB, Leonard S, Masamsetti V, Pierce A, Podlutsky AJ, Podlutskaya N, 
Richardson A, Austad SN, Chaudhuri AR.

*Sam and Ann Barshop Institute for Longevity and Aging Studies,Department of 
Cellular and Structural Biology, andDepartment of Biochemistry, University of 
Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, San Antonio, Texas, USA; 
andGeriatric Research Education and Clinical Center, South Texas Veterans Health
Care System, San Antonio, Texas, USA.

Altered structure, and hence function, of cellular macromolecules caused by 
oxidation can contribute to loss of physiological function with age. Here, we 
tested whether the lifespan of bats, which generally live far longer than 
predicted by their size, could be explained by reduced protein damage relative 
to short-lived mice. We show significantly lower protein oxidation 
(carbonylation) in Mexican free-tailed bats (Tadarida brasiliensis) relative to 
mice, and a trend for lower oxidation in samples from cave myotis bats (Myotis 
velifer) relative to mice. Both species of bat show in vivo and in vitro 
resistance to protein oxidation under conditions of acute oxidative stress. 
These bat species also show low levels of protein ubiquitination in total 
protein lysates along with reduced proteasome activity, suggesting diminished 
protein damage and removal in bats. Lastly, we show that bat-derived protein 
fractions are resistant to urea-induced protein unfolding relative to the level 
of unfolding detected in fractions from mice. Together, these data suggest that 
long lifespan in some bat species might be regulated by very efficient 
maintenance of protein homeostasis.-Salmon, A. B., Leonard, S., Masamsetti, V., 
Pierce, A., Podlutsky, A. J., Podlutskaya, N., Richardson, A., Austad, S. N., 
Chaudhuri, A. R. The long lifespan of two bat species is correlated with 
resistance to protein oxidation and enhanced protein homeostasis.
PMID: 19244163

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