Long life through better genes

People with "favorable genes" get rarer
Those who live for a long time apparently have "good" genes, through which serious age-related diseases such as Alzheimer's occur later or even not at all. This report Stanford University researchers in California currently in the journal "PLOS Genetics". Therefore, in addition to the genes, the blood group could possibly play a role in the elderly.
Genes influence the development of geriatric diseases
"He certainly had good genes!" This phrase is heard more often when a person becomes comparatively old. But the saying could be more tuned than previously thought. Apparently, hereditary factors actually have an effect on how old someone gets. After all, according to a team of researchers headed by Kristen Fortney of Stanford University (California), they ensure that certain age-related illnesses, such as heart disease or Alzheimer's, are delayed or even absent.

The genes dictate life expectancy. Picture: DDRockstar - fotolia

Science has long sought to explain why some people reach a much higher age than others - even though they are exposed to the same risk factors (for example lack of exercise, one-sided nutrition). As the researchers write, a lot is known about genome-wide association studies (genome-wide association study, or GWAS) about the genetic basis of disease risks. However, little is known about the specific genetic differences that lead to different life expectancies between individuals. It has been deduced from twin studies that the proportion of genetic material is about 25 to 30 percent if a person is well over 80 years old.

Records from 14 major studies
Kristen Fortney's scientists used a so-called "big data" approach to identify gene variants associated with extreme longevity. Altogether, they considered more than one million data sets from 14 large studies on diseases and disease characteristics and evaluated these with the specially developed statistical procedure "iGWAS". When investigating the genome datasets of hundreds of people over 90 years, the researchers first discovered eight so-called "single nucleotide polymorphisms" (short: SNP) in the DNA strands, in which a connection with life expectancy seemed possible. Four of the SPN were said to have been confirmed in further investigations and the fifth is probably associated with exceptional longevity. In addition, according to the scientists may also have the blood type has an impact on the lifespan. Because centenarians had more often the blood group 0 than the remaining middle population.

New statistics tool can support further research
In order to confirm the results, further extensive studies would have to follow, in which the newly developed statistical method "iGWAS" could be of great help, the researchers write. "Our findings imply new loci for longevity and show a genetic overlap between longevity and age-related diseases and traits, including coronary heart disease and Alzheimer's disease. iGWAS offers a new analytical strategy for detecting single nucleotide polymorphisms that affect extreme longevity, and can be broadly used to support other studies on complex phenotypes, "said the scientists in" PLOS Genetics. " (No)