From: deputydog23x@gmail.com   
      
   New UCLA study finds novel approach that may help delay declines in health   
   (analyzing intestinal bacteria)   
      
   New UCLA study finds novel approach that may help delay declines in health    
   Posted in: Medical Science News | Medical Research News | Medical Condition   
   News    
      
   Published on September 14, 2015 at 1:02 AM    
      
   Why do some people remain healthy into their 80s and beyond, while others age   
   faster and suffer serious diseases decades earlier? New research led by UCLA   
   life scientists may produce a new way to answer that question -- and an   
   approach that could help    
   delay declines in health.    
      
   Specifically, the study suggests that analyzing intestinal bacteria could be a   
   promising way to predict health outcomes as we age.    
      
   The researchers discovered changes within intestinal microbes that precede and   
   predict the death of fruit flies. The findings were published in the   
   open-source journal Cell Reports.    
      
   "Age-onset decline is very tightly linked to changes within the community of   
   gut microbes," said David Walker, a UCLA professor of integrative biology and   
   physiology, and senior author of the research. "With age, the number of   
   bacterial cells increase    
   substantially and the composition of bacterial groups changes."    
      
   The study used fruit flies in part because although their typical life span is   
   just eight weeks, some live to the age equivalent of humans' 80s and 90s,   
   while others age and die much younger. In addition, scientists have identified   
   all of the fruit fly's    
   genes and know how to switch individual ones on and off.    
      
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   In a previous study, the UCLA researchers discovered that five or six days   
   before flies died, their intestinal tracts became more permeable and started   
   leaking.    
      
   In the latest research, which analyzed more than 10,000 female flies, the   
   scientists found that they were able to detect bacterial changes in the   
   intestine before the leaking began. As part of the study, some fruit flies   
   were given antibiotics that    
   significantly reduce bacterial levels in the intestine; the study found that   
   the antibiotics prevented the age-related increase in bacteria levels and   
   improved intestinal function during aging.    
      
   The biologists also showed that reducing bacterial levels in old flies can   
   significantly prolong their life span.    
      
   "When we prevented the changes in the intestinal microbiota that were linked   
   to the flies' imminent death by feeding them antibiotics, we dramatically   
   extended their lives and improved their health," Walker said. (Microbiota are   
   the bacteria and other    
   microorganisms that are abundant in humans, other mammals, fruit flies and   
   many other animals.)    
      
   Flies with leaky intestines that were given antibiotics lived an average of 20   
   days after the leaking began -- a substantial part of the animal's life span.   
   On average, flies with leaky intestines that did not receive antibiotics died   
   within a week.    
      
   The intestine acts as a barrier to protect our organs and tissue from   
   environmental damage.    
      
   "The health of the intestine -- in particular the maintenance of the barrier   
   protecting the rest of the body from the contents of the gut -- is very   
   important and might break down with aging," said Rebecca Clark, the study's   
   lead author. Clark was a UCLA    
   postdoctoral scholar when the research was conducted and is now a lecturer at   
   England's Durham University.    
      
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   The biologists collaborated with William Ja, an assistant professor at   
   Florida's Scripps Research Institute, and Ryuichi Yamada, a postdoctoral   
   research associate in Ja's laboratory, to produce an additional group of flies   
   that were completely germ-free,    
   with no intestinal microbes. Those flies showed a very dramatic delay in   
   intestinal damage, and they lived for about 80 days, approximately   
   one-and-a-half times as long as the animal's typical life span.    
      
   Scientists have recently begun to connect a wide variety of diseases,   
   including diabetes and Parkinson's, among many others, to changes in the   
   microbiota, but they do not yet know exactly what healthy microbiota look   
   like.    
      
   "One of the big questions in the biology of aging relates to the large   
   variation in how we age and how long we live," said Walker, who added that   
   scientific interest in intestinal microbes has exploded in the last five   
   years.    
      
   When a fruit fly's intestine begins to leak, its immune response increases   
   substantially and chronically throughout its body. Chronic immune activation   
   is linked with age-related diseases in people as well, Walker said.    
      
   Walker said that the study could lead to realistic ways for scientists to   
   intervene in the aging process and delay the onset of Parkinson's disease,   
   Alzheimer's disease, cancer, stroke, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and   
   other diseases of aging --    
   although such progress could take many years, he said.    
      
   Source: University of California - Los Angeles    
      
      
      
   http://www.news-medical.net/news/20150914/New-UCLA-study-finds-n   
   vel-approach-that-may-help-delay-declines-in-health.aspx   
      
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