The research team led by Guangju Zhai, from King’s College London has identified eight genes which could slow down the ageing process and help people to live longer and healthier lives. The answer to halt the agonizing signs of ageing may lie in steroid known as DHEAS, found in the blood.
If researchers could be able to alter the working of DHEAS steroid, then ageing process could be slowed down. Hitherto there has been no method to know what role the steroid plays in ageing. The earlier studies have shown that DHEAS steroid reaches at its climax in ages between twenty-five to thirty.
However when you get older its levels dropped and on reaching in the age of eighty-five, it had reduced by up to ninety-five percent. The steroid has also been associated with the diseases, which happen in old age like diabetes and certain forms of cancer. But it is not yet clear if it is a spin-off of ageing itself.
Two of genes have already been associated with the process of ageing and others to age-related conditions. The research team analyzed nearly fifteen thousand people from Europe and USA for levels of DHEAS and two and half million genetic variants. Eight common genes that control concentration of DHAS were found.
More significantly, some of genes are linked to ageing and normal age-related diseases like Type 2 diabetes and lymphoma. According to Prof Tim Spector, senior co-author from King’s College, for fifty years they have examined the most copious flowing steroid in the body with no clue as to its role. Now genes have shown its significance in many parts of the ageing process.
This new study offers a new imminent into how the body manages levels of DHEAS and why it diminishes with age. The study is published in the journal PLoS Genetics.