Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2022 May 18;23(10):5635.
doi: 10.3390/ijms23105635.

How Important Are Genes to Achieve Longevity?

Calogero Caruso  1 , Mattia Emanuela Ligotti  1   2 , Giulia Accardi  1 , Anna Aiello  1 , Giovanni Duro  2 , Damiano Galimberti  3 , Giuseppina Candore  1
Affiliations
Review

How Important Are Genes to Achieve Longevity?

Calogero Caruso et al. Int J Mol Sci. .

Abstract

Several studies on the genetics of longevity have been reviewed in this paper. The results show that, despite efforts and new technologies, only two genes, APOE and FOXO3A, involved in the protection of cardiovascular diseases, have been shown to be associated with longevity in nearly all studies. This happens because the genetic determinants of longevity are dynamic and depend on the environmental history of a given population. In fact, population-specific genes are thought to play a greater role in the attainment of longevity than those shared between different populations. Hence, it is not surprising that GWAS replicated associations of common variants with longevity have been few, if any, as these studies pool together different populations. An alternative way might be the study of long-life families. This type of approach is proving to be an ideal resource for uncovering protective alleles and associated biological signatures for healthy aging phenotypes and exceptional longevity.

Keywords: APOE; FOXO3A; GWAS; SNP; genes; long-life families; longevity; survival.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

References

    1. Accardi G., Aiello A., Vasto S., Caruso C. Chance and Causality in Ageing and Longevity. In: Caruso C., editor. Centenarians. Springer; Cham, Switzerland: 2019. pp. 1–21. - DOI
    1. Candore G., Caruso C., editors. Human Aging. Academic Press; Cambridge, MA, USA: 2021. Aging and longevity: An evolutionary approach; pp. 1–12. - DOI
    1. Avery P., Barzilai N., Benetos A., Bilianou H., Capri M., Caruso C., Franceschi C., Katsiki N., Mikhailidis D., Panotopoulos G., et al. Ageing, Longevity, Exceptional Longevity and Related Genetic and Non Genetics Markers: Panel Statement. Curr. Vasc. Pharmacol. 2014;12:659–661. doi: 10.2174/1570161111666131219101226. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Poulain M. Individual Longevity Versus Population Longevity. In: Caruso C., editor. Centenarians. Springer; Cham, Switzerland: 2019. pp. 53–70. - DOI
    1. Barbi E., Lagona F., Marsili M., Vaupel J.W., Wachter K.W. The plateau of human mortality: Demography of longevity pioneers. Science. 2018;360:1459–1461. doi: 10.1126/science.aat3119. - DOI - PMC - PubMed