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PMID: 22156437 Published · ppublish English Journal Article Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

Discovery of functional gene variants associated with human longevity: opportunities and challenges.

The journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences ·Vol. 67 ·No. 4 ·2012-04-00 ·Pages 376-83

Tazearslan C, Cho M, Suh Y

Abstract

Age is a major risk factor for many human diseases. Extremely long-lived individuals, such as centenarians, have managed to ward off age-related diseases and serve as human models to search for the genetic factors that influence longevity. The discovery of evolutionarily conserved pathways with major impact on life span in animal models has provided tantalizing opportunities to test the relevance of these pathways for human longevity. Here we specifically focus on the insulin/insulin-like growth factor-1 signaling as a prime candidate pathway. Coupled with the rapid advances in ultra high-throughput sequencing technologies, it is now feasible to comprehensively analyze all possible sequence variants in candidate genes segregating with a longevity phenotype and to investigate the functional consequences of the associated variants. A better understanding of the functional genes that affect healthy longevity in humans may lead to a rational basis for intervention strategies that can delay or prevent age-related diseases.

MeSH Terms
Aged, 80 and over Aging/genetics Animals Caenorhabditis elegans/genetics Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins/genetics Female Genetic Association Studies Genetic Variation Humans Insulin/genetics Insulin-Like Growth Factor I/genetics Longevity/genetics Male Mice Signal Transduction/genetics
Chemicals
Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins Insulin Insulin-Like Growth Factor I
Authors & Affiliations
3 authors, click to expand affiliations / ORCID
Tazearslan Cagdas
Department of Genetics, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY 10461, USA.
Cho Miook
Suh Yousin
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Article Info
Journal
The journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences
Abbr.
J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci
ISSN
1758-535X
DOI
10.1093/gerona/glr200
Published
2012-04-00
Epub
2011-00-07
Pages
376-83
Language
English
Region
United States
NLM ID
9502837
PMCID
PMC3309874
Subset
IM
Grants
NIA NIH HHS · AG024391 · United States
NIA NIH HHS · AG027734 · United States
NIA NIH HHS · AG17242 · United States
External Links
PubMed source DOI: 10.1093/gerona/glr200 PMC Full Text View journal details
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