Chemical that detects plaques in Alzheimer's brains extends lifespan of roundworms
In a study involving more than 44,000 animals published in Nature Communications , researchers from Rutgers, The University of Oregon, and the Buck Institute for Research on Aging in California tested 10 different compounds from multiple species of roundworms that featured more genetic diversity than can be found between mice and humans, and found that Thioflavin T was the most effective in increasing the lifespan in all species and doubling it in one. Up until now, chemical compounds that have been found to extend life in worms and mice have been most often studied in animals with specific -- and somewhat uniform -- genetic backgrounds. But Thioflavin T worked in all the genetically diverse species, possibly by preventing damaged and misfolded proteins which in humans contributes to age-related diseases like Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and Huntington's. "These worms may have been the same basic animal but, like humans, their genes had a lot of variation which mea...