Identification of gut microbiome signatures associated with longevity provides a promising modulation target for healthy aging

Abstract

The world population is aging, which poses a significant burden to the economy and health care system. As people age, so do their gut microbiomes. Age-related changes in gut microbiome have been reported, including decreased microbial diversity and increased Proteobacteria. Recently, we characterized the gut microbiome of a group of long-living (≥ 90 years old) Chinese people. Interestingly, the diversity of their gut microbiome was greater than that of a young adult control group. We also identified several potentially beneficial bacteria enriched in the long-living Chinese group. These results were validated using data from an independent Italian cohort that included a group of long-living individuals. Other recent studies have found similar results. Here, we provide a summary of these discoveries and discuss their implications in healthy aging.

Keywords: beneficial bacteria; diversity; gut microbiota; healthy aging.

Figure 1.

Box plots of five shared features between the Italian and Chinese cohorts. We identified the top 50 features that differentiated the long-living and younger cohorts and in both our Chinese and in the independent Italian cohort. Among the 50 features, 11 were shared between the two cohorts. We previously showed 6 of these 11 features.¹³ Here, we show the remaining five shared features.

Figure 2.

Pie charts showing the average abundance of the bacterial taxa at the genus (a,) and phylum (b,) levels in the long-living and younger Chinese and Italian cohorts.

Figure 3.

Two recent studies (from a Japanese cohort (a) and from a Chinese Jiangsu province cohort (b)) found greater gut microbiome diversity in the long-living cohorts than in the younger cohorts.