Is Lithium the Secret of Longevity?

Humans have been searching since ever for the secret of the deathless life and ageless youth. They linked longevity to pha-4 encountered in nematode worms, looked at the hormones of the queen bee or that of the naked mole-rat to see why she lives so much longer than the workers, but by now, no drug boosting longer-life has been found.

Still, a Buck Institute research led by Dr. Gordon J. Lithgow, currently published online in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, comes with a surprise: nematode worms which received lithium displayed a 46 % longer lifespan, so that we could ask ourselves if lithium containing drugs prescribed for mood affections, like bipolar disease, also work as an anti-aging medication.

These chemicals have been found to protect neurons, but their biological action is still a mystery, and comes with severe side effects.

The new study made on the nematode worm C. elegans found that longevity was boosted in the worms when the metal shut down a gene controlling chromosomes' basic structure, but it could in fact interfere with the activity of other genes, too. "Understanding the genetic impact of lithium may allow us to engineer a therapy that has the same lifespan extending benefits. One of the larger questions is whether the lifespan extending benefits of the drug are directly related to the fact that lithium protects neurons.", said Lithgow.

In the end, human aging process is connected to the neurodegenerative conditions. "However, the cellular changes and events due to aging that impact neurodegeneration are not yet understood," said Lithgow. Lithium drugs could also explain the connection between aging and disease. Lithgow's team is checking the effect of thousands of chemicals on aging.

"The use of simple model organisms with well developed genetic tools can speed the identification of molecular targets. This could facilitate the development of improved therapies for diseases.", explained Lithgow the choice of the nematode worm C. elegans for his researches.

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