Dietary Supplement Found To Promote Healthy Aging and Increased Life Span
In a new study on aging, Gordon Lithgow and Brian Kennedy of the Buck Institute for Research noted that mice who were given the substance alpha-ketoglutarate (AKG)-aged healthier and experienced a dramatically shorter time of disease and disability before dying, as compared to those mice, not on the supplement.
Azar Asadi Shahmirzadi, Pharm.D, Ph.D., Buck Institue postdoctoral fellow and lead scientist on the study, experimented on a group of mice when he was a graduate student.
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Groups of 18-month-old mice (about age 55 in human years) were given an equivalent of 2% of their daily food as AKG for around 21 months until they died. Noticeable changes were that these mice looked much blacker, shinier, and younger compared to the control group. They also score 40% better on 31 physiological attributes that were measured, such as hair color, gait, sense of hearing, and strength of grip.
The female mice lived a median of 8% to 20% longer as a response to the AKG diet and were producing higher levels of molecules that fight inflammation.
The test did not include measurement of cognitive performance, and these AKG-eating mice did not also perform better on heart tests nor treadmill endurance.
Asadi noted that most of the study results were sex-specific, with female mice generally scoring better than males. Based on previous studies, AKG levels in blood plasma decreases up to 10-fold with aging.
Other antiaging drugs like rapamycin and metformin also exhibit similar effects on mice experiments. Still, since AKG is a naturally-occurring metabolite found in mice as well as our bodies, this is considered safer by regulators.
Alpha-ketoglutarate is a chemical found in the body which inhibits protein breakdown in muscles, making it a popular choice among bodybuilders as a dietary supplement. It plays a crucial role in cellular energy metabolism while helping stimulate collagen and protein synthesis in age-related processes, including stem cell proliferation. Doctors have also been using it to treat osteoporosis and kidney diseases.
According to suppliers of this nutritional supplement, alpha-ketoglutaric acid may be an essential addition to the diet of those people who want to achieve peak performance in their training.
Plans on human testing
Lithgow mentioned that the necessary research in the nematode worm C. elegans paved the way to the start of human clinical trials on AKG. The first evidence that AKG extended lifespan came in 2014 during the study of a microscopic worm.
Kennedy, serving as a chief scientific officer in the company Ponce de Leon Health, plans to test AKG in human volunteers soon. The target group of people with age ranging from 45 to 65 will be subjected to the test to see whether the AKG molecule improves aging-related biomarkers. Some of these biomarkers include inflammation, arterial hardening, and a type of chemical signature on DNA associated with aging.
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