CosBeauty Magazine #101

A
team of European researchers has identified
12 key indicators ‘which are measurable
processes that change with the ageing of
the organism and which, when manipulated
experimentally, induce an acceleration or, on the contrary,
an interruption, even a regression, of ageing’.
The authors note ‘each of these indicators should be
considered an entry point for future exploration of the
ageing process, as well as for the development of new
anti-ageing drugs’.
Assessing the new study Dr Javier Gomez Pavon, from
the leadership team at the Spanish Society of Geriatrics
and Gerontology, told Medscape.com this research
confirmed ‘diet is currently the most easily accessible
form of intervention to slow down ageing’.
The collaborative study titled ‘Hallmarks of Ageing:
An expanding universe’ – by scientists from research
institutions in Spain (Spanish National Cancer Centre,
University of Oviedo, and Barcelona Institute of Science
and Technology), England (University College London),
Germany (Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing) and
France (University of Paris) – has been published in the
international journal Cell.
In their study, the researchers propose the following
12 hallmarks of ageing: genomic instability, telomere
attrition, epigenetic alterations, loss of proteostasis,
disabled macroautophagy, deregulated nutrient-sensing,
mitochondrial dysfunction, cellular senescence, stem cell
exhaustion, altered intercellular communication, chronic
inflammation, and dysbiosis.
The researchers explain that ageing is driven by
hallmarks fulfilling three premises:
• their age-associated manifestation;
• the acceleration of ageing by experimentally
accentuating them; and
• the opportunity to decelerate, stop or reverse ageing
by therapeutic interventions on them.
These hallmarks ‘are interconnected among each
other, as well as to the recently proposed hallmarks of
health, which include organisational features of spatial
compartmentalisation, maintenance of homeostasis, and
adequate responses to stress’.
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