Study reveals 117-year-old's biology shows aging and youth coexist — SkimNews
Get the Health newsletter
Daily health & science — research, biotech, public health, the studies worth knowing. Free.
- Researchers led by Dr. Manel Esteller at the Josep Carreras Leukaemia Research Institute published the final peer-reviewed multi-omic analysis of Maria Branyas, a Catalan woman who lived past 117, in Cell Reports Medicine.
- The study combined genomic, proteomic, epigenomic, metabolomic, and microbiomic technologies — described as the most comprehensive biological investigation yet conducted on a supercentenarian.
- Branyas's biology showed what Esteller called a "fascinating duality": very short telomeres, a pro-inflammatory immune profile, and aged B lymphocytes alongside neuroprotective and cardioprotective genetic features, low inflammation, a bifidobacteria-dominated gut microbiome, and an epigenetic biological age younger than her chronological age.
- Because Branyas avoided major disease, the study gave researchers the first opportunity to examine aging itself with minimal interference from illness in a person of such extreme age.
- The findings may inform research into blood cancers such as leukemia and myelodysplastic syndromes, since aging in the blood-forming system is closely tied to elevated risk of those conditions.
- Researchers pointed to a healthy diet, a diverse social network, and the absence of toxic habits as factors potentially worth considering, but cautioned that linking specific biological traits to behaviors remains premature.
- Epigenetic therapies and senescence-targeting drugs already being explored in oncology could become relevant tools for addressing biological aging itself, much as modern medicine targets specific diseases.
Why it matters: For aging researchers, this study supplies a new reference blueprint of what extreme human longevity looks like at the molecular level — and because Branyas escaped major disease, it isolates aging from its usual confounders. The blood-system findings have direct implications for understanding why some older adults develop leukemia and related cancers.
Ask SkimNews
