PHILADELPHIA, PA — The Wistar Institute’s associate professor, Dr. Mohamed Abdel-Mohsen, and his team, recently made a ground-breaking discovery, published in the Microbiome. They unveiled a link between viral damage to the gut, or intestinal leakage, and premature biological aging, particularly for people with chronic HIV infection.
Biological age often surpasses our calendar years, making individuals more susceptible to ailments typically affecting older adults. In other words, biological clocks seem to tick faster than chronological ones. Cancers, heart diseases, brain disorders, severe infections, and reduced vaccine effectiveness are some health issues these individuals confront. Dr. Abdel-Mohsen’s pursuit aims to understand the mechanisms of such rapid aging and how to slow it down.
The gut microbiome is the lead suspect in this mystery. Extensive research by the Abdel-Mohsen lab aims to understand how ‘leaky gut’, or gut microbiome leakage into the bloodstream, could trigger chronic inflammation, thereby speeding up aging.
Chronic HIV infection, known to potentially hasten or emphasize biological age, therefore became the subject of their study. This choice enabled a deeper understanding of accelerated biological age in people living with chronic conditions. The team examined colon, ileum, stool, and blood samples from chronic HIV-infected individuals and well-matched controls.
Their research shed light on the significant relationship between disrupted gut microbiomes, increased intestinal permeability, and hastened biological aging. Interestingly, a strong connection was observed between the accelerated biological aging and the microbiomes of the colon and ileum, but not the fecal microbiome. This underlines that the microbiome’s location significantly influences its effects on aging.
Experts measure biological age through advanced methods such as telomere length analysis and “epigenetic clocks” like the Hannum and Horvath clocks. DNA methylation patterns, which change with age, are used by these epigenetic clocks to estimate biological age.
The application of several advanced methods to measure biological age to blood and intestinal tissue samples is the first of its kind in HIV patients. This unique exploration into the link between the microbiome and intestinal biological age in this population marks pioneering work in understanding chronic HIV’s aging effects in the microbiome.
The research spotlighted certain bacteria and their by-products as potential aging accelerators. This revelation could pave the way for strategies to counter these bacteria and their byproducts, potentially extending the health span of individuals living with chronic conditions like chronic infections.
Despite these findings, Dr. Abdel-Mohsen insists on the need for further probe to fully comprehend the underlying causes and potential impacts. He said, “Moreover, there’s a crucial need to create strategies to prevent intestinal dysbiosis and gut leakiness and to determine how these strategies could affect an individual’s biological age. Our work is just the beginning of an exciting journey into enhancing health and longevity.”
This research project was generously supported by various National Institutes of Health grants, the Penn Center for AIDS Research, and the NIH-funded BEAT-HIV Martin Delaney Collaboratory. It also received substantial philanthropic funding, demonstrating the importance and interest placed in this novel research.
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