Finding new bacteria in the gut can help slow down aging

Researchers have identified a new bacterium called C. elegans whose genes and compounds can slow the progression of tumors and the accumulation of amyloid-beta - an inter-compound. Alzheimer's disease.

Meng Wang, an associate professor at Baylor, said: " The scientific community is increasingly aware of the body's interaction with millions of bacteria in our gut, which can affect many functions in the body. including cognitive function, aging, digestion '.

" In this study, we have studied and found that the genetic composition of this organism can be very important for the life of its host," Wang said.

For the study, the team used a sample of intestinal bacteria, which completely removed the bacteria of E. coli; a lack of part in 4000 intestinal bacterial genes to focus on investigating new bacteria.

Wang said: " We feed C.elegans to eat mutated bacteria and then consider the lifespan of the worms . "

"The results show that 12 of these genetic mutations can protect worms from tumor growth and amyloid-beta, an Alzheimer's causative agent in humans ." Wang said.

Further experiments show that some of these bacterial mutations also increase the life of the host by acting on some aging processes on the intestinal worms.

According to the researchers, based on these results, in the future it is possible to create bacterial or compound preparations from them to slow down the aging process.