Energy drinks not just for kids
By COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IRVING MEDICAL CENTER
Columbia
Study: Energy Drink Ingredient Taurine May Boost Health and Slow Aging
(scitechdaily.com)
Taurine supplementation increases healthy life span. The bull depicts taurine (The word taurine originates from Taurus bull; Urine, because it was first identified in the urine of bull) which is reversing the clock of aging increasing health span and life span. Credit: Columbia University Irving Medical Center
A deficiency of taurine—a nutrient produced in the body and found in many foods—is a driver of aging in animals, according to a new study led by Columbia researchers and involving dozens of aging researchers around the world.
The
same study also found that taurine supplements can slow down the aging process
in worms, mice, and monkeys and can even extend the healthy lifespans of
middle-aged mice by up to 12%.
The study was published on June 8 in the journal Science.
“For
the last 25 years, scientists have been trying to find factors that not only
let us live longer, but also increase healthspan, the time we remain healthy in
our old age,” says the study’s leader, Vijay Yadav, PhD, assistant professor of
genetics & development at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians
and Surgeons.
“This study suggests that taurine could be an elixir of life within us that helps us live longer and healthier lives.”
Taurine supplementation increases healthy life span. In the illustration
an old man is seen walking through a taurine shower and coming out as
rejuvenated healthy man. Taurine structure is depicted as a ball and stick
model in the taurine shower. Credit: Columbia University Irving Medical Center
Anti-aging molecules within us
Over
the past two decades, efforts to identify interventions that improve health in
old age have intensified as people are living longer and scientists have
learned that the aging process can be manipulated.
Many studies have found that various molecules carried through the bloodstream are associated with aging. Less certain is whether these molecules actively direct the aging process or are just passengers going along for the ride. If a molecule is a driver of aging, then restoring its youthful levels would delay aging and increase healthspan, the years we spend in good health.
Taurine
first came into Yadav’s view during his previous research into osteoporosis
that uncovered taurine’s role in building bone. Around the same time, other
researchers were finding that taurine levels correlated with immune function,
obesity, and nervous system functions.
“We
realized that if taurine is regulating all these processes that decline with
age, maybe taurine levels in the bloodstream affect overall health and
lifespan,” Yadav says.
Taurine supplementation makes animals healthier and live longer. Credit:
Columbia University Irving Medical Center
Taurine declines with age, supplementation increases lifespan in mice
First,
Yadav’s team looked at levels of taurine in the bloodstream of mice, monkeys,
and people and found that the taurine abundance decreases substantially with
age. In people, taurine levels in 60-year-old individuals were only about
one-third of those found in 5-year-olds.
“That’s
when we started to ask if taurine deficiency is a driver of the aging process,
and we set up a large experiment with mice,” Yadav says.
The
researchers started with close to 250 14-month-old female and male mice (about
45 years old in people terms). Every day, the researcher fed half of them a bolus
of taurine or a control solution. At the end of the experiment, Yadav and his
team found that taurine increased average lifespan by 12% in female mice and
10% in males. For the mice, that meant three to four extra months, equivalent
to about seven or eight human years.
Taurine supplements in middle age improve health in old age
To
learn how taurine impacted health, Yadav brought in other aging researchers who
investigated the effect of taurine supplementation on the health and lifespan
in several species.
These
experts measured various health parameters in mice and found that at age 2 (60
in human years), animals supplemented with taurine for one year were healthier
in almost every way than their untreated counterparts.
The
researchers found that taurine suppressed age-associated weight gain in female
mice (even in “menopausal” mice), increased energy expenditure, increased bone
mass, improved muscle endurance and strength, reduced depression-like and
anxious behaviors, reduced insulin resistance,
and promoted a younger-looking immune system, among other benefits.
“Not
only did we find that the animals lived longer, we also found that they’re
living healthier lives,” Yadav says.
Taurine deficiency associates with poor health. Credit: Columbia
University Irving Medical Center
At a
cellular level, taurine improved many functions that usually decline with age:
The supplement decreased the number of “zombie cells” (old cells that should
die but instead linger and release harmful substances), increased survival
after telomerase deficiency, increased the number of stem cells present in some
tissues (which can help tissues heal after injury), improved the performance of
mitochondria, reduced DNA damage,
and improved the cells‘ ability to sense nutrients.
Similar health effects of taurine supplements were seen in middle-aged rhesus monkeys, which were given daily taurine supplements for six months. Taurine prevented weight gain, reduced fasting blood glucose and markers of liver damage, increased bone density in the spine and legs, and improved the health of their immune systems.
Randomized clinical trial needed
The
researchers do not know yet if taurine supplements will improve health or
increase longevity in humans, but two experiments they conducted suggest
taurine has potential.
In the first, Yadav and his team looked at the relationship between taurine levels and approximately 50 health parameters in 12,000 European adults aged 60 and over. Overall, people with higher taurine levels were healthier, with fewer cases of type 2 diabetes, lower obesity levels, reduced hypertension, and lower levels of inflammation.
“These are associations, which do not establish causation,”
Yadav says, “but the results are consistent with the possibility that taurine
deficiency contributes to human aging.”
The
second study tested if taurine levels would respond to an intervention known to
improve health: exercise. The researchers measured taurine levels before and
after a variety of male athletes and sedentary individuals finished a strenuous
cycling workout and found a significant increase in taurine among all groups of
athletes (sprinters, endurance runners, and natural bodybuilders) and sedentary
individuals.
“No
matter the individual, all had increased taurine levels after exercise, which
suggests that some of the health benefits of exercise may come from an increase
in taurine,” Yadav says.
Only a
randomized clinical trial in people will determine if taurine truly has health
benefits, Yadav adds. Taurine trials are currently underway for obesity, but
none are designed to measure a wide range of health parameters.
Other
potential anti-aging drugs—including metformin, rapamycin, and NAD analogs—are
being considered for testing in clinical trials.
“I
think taurine should also be considered,” Yadav says. “And it has some
advantages: Taurine is naturally produced in our bodies, it can be obtained
naturally in the diet, it has no known toxic effects (although it’s rarely used
in concentrations used ), and it can be boosted by exercise.
“Taurine
abundance goes down with age, so restoring taurine to a youthful level in old
age may be a promising anti-aging strategy.”
Reference:
“Taurine deficiency as a driver of aging” by Parminder Singh, Kishore
Gollapalli, Stefano Mangiola, Daniela Schranner, Mohd Aslam Yusuf, Manish
Chamoli, Sting L. Shi, Bruno Lopes Bastos, Tripti Nair, Annett Riermeier, Elena
M. Vayndorf, Judy Z. Wu, Aishwarya Nilakhe, Christina Q. Nguyen, Michael Muir,
Michael G. Kiflezghil, Anna Foulger, Alex Junker, Jack Devine, Kunal Sharan,
Shankar J. Chinta, Swati Rajput, Anand Rane, Philipp Baumert, Martin
Schönfelder, Francescopaolo lavarone, Giorgia di Lorenzo, Swati Kumari, Alka
Gupta, Rajesh Sarkar, Costerwell Khyriem, Amanpreet S. Chawla, Ankur Sharma,
Nazan Sarper, Naibedya Chattopadhyay, Bichitra K. Biswal, Carmine Settembre,
Perumal Nagarajan, Kimara L. Targoff, Martin Picard, Sarika Gupta, Vidya
Velagapudi, Anthony T. Papenfuss, Alaattin Kaya, Miguel Godinho Ferreiral,
Brian K. Kennedy, Julie K. Andersen, Gordon J. Lithgow, Abdullah Mahmood Ali,
Arnab Mukhopadhyay, Aarno Palotie, Gabi Kastenmiller, Matt Kaeberlein, Henning
Wackerhage, Bhupinder Pal and Vijay K. Yadav, 9 June 2023, Science.
DOI:
10.1126/science.abn9257
This
work was funded by the Nathan Shock Center of Excellence in the Basic Biology
of Aging Project; National Institutes of Health (R01HD107574,
P30AG013280, T32AG066574); Wellcome (098051); Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
(450149205-TRR333/1); Institut National Du Cancer (PLBIO21-228 ); Science and
Engineering Research Board (STR/2019/00064); Department of Biotechnology
(BT/PR40325/BTIS/137/1/2020); a Longevity Impetus Grant; Academy of Finland
Center of Excellence in Complex Disease Genetics (312074, 336824, and 352793);
The Sigrid Juselius Foundation; a Larry L. Hillblom Foundation Fellowship;
Victorian Cancer Agency (ECRF21036 and MCRF21002); and a DBT Ramalingaswamy
Fellowship.
Columbia
University has filed provision patent applications on which Vijay Yadav is
listed as an inventor. The remaining authors declare no competing interests.