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Maria Branyas Morera was 117 when she died in August 2024 — but aspects of her biota looked much untested , new research find .
The work could help break primal ingredient that help some individuals guard off disease and survive to extremely old ages , scientists say .
The supercentenarian Maria Branyas Morera on her 117th birthday on March 4, 2024.
Before her death in a nursing home in Catalonia , Spain , Branyas held the criminal record for theworld ’s old surviving personfor about a year and a half . Now , a study of urine , blood , stool and saliva samples collected from Branyas in the last year of her lifetime reveals she had a number of broker that potentially protect her against disease . These include genes associated with resistant role , fantastic cholesterin levels , and a high-pitched level of excitement - campaign bacterium in her gut .
The study was posted Feb. 25 to the preprint serverbioRxivand has not yet been peer - critique .
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Maria Branyas Morera as a child (dressed in white), pictured with her family in in New Orleans in 1911.
" One of the goal of the study was to see and find an account for this legal separation between extreme longevity and being very sure-enough , but at the same time not cause the diseases of the old , " study lead authorManel Esteller , a cancer epigeneticist at the Josep Carreras Institute in Spain , told Live Science .
Notably , however , not all researchers are convinced that take supercentenarians — the great unwashed ages 110 or older — is a fruitful method of understand longevity . That ’s part because the existent ages of these individuals have been scream into interrogation .
The biology of longevity
According to theGuinness Book of World Records , one entity that validate old - historic period records , Branyas was born in San Francisco in 1907 and live in Texas and Louisiana before moving to Spain in 1915 with her Spanish - born parent . Other than hearing loss and mobility proceeds , she remain respectable and cognitively discriminating until dying .
Esteller and his colleagues investigated Branyas ' genes , resistant cells , blood levels of lipids , and proteins in her tissues , liken her results to those of young individuals who had undergone exchangeable testing . For example , they compare Branyas ' genetic results to those of 75 other Iberian women in the1000 Genomes Project , an effort to map out variation in the human genome .
This comparison revealed seven rare genetic variants in Branyas ' genome that had never been observe in European populations .
These variants , or distinct versions of genes , were relate to cognitive occasion , immune function , lung function , heart disease , genus Cancer and autoimmune disorders . They may have protected against these diseases and improved organ function , the scientists intimate .
They also find that Branyas had excellent mitochondrial function , think of the powerhouses that cater cells energy worked better than those of immature women . She also had healthycholesterol levelsand a mellow production of proteins that are beneficial for immune function .
And based on her stool samples , her gut microbiome was distinct from that of61- to 91 - class old previously studied . In particular , she read a high level of actinobacteria , which typically decline in old geezerhood . Bacteria of the genusBifidobacterium , which are bed to excrete anti - incendiary compound , were especially prevalent . This contrasts the " typical declination of this bacterial genus in old mortal , " the field of study authors noted .
" She had this bacteria in the gut that protected againstinflammationand she had this bacterium for two cause , " Esteller theorized . " The genome was very welcoming of the universe , but [ it was ] also due to her food . " Branyas reported eating three yogurt a twenty-four hours , he said ; fermented nutrient like yoghurt containprobiotics , or sustenance microorganisms that can replenish and maintain thegut microbiome .
A molecular clock
Another intriguing finding was a schism between the molecular mark of aging in Branyas ' torso and her chronological years .
When hoi polloi age , construction at the ends of their chromosomes , called telomeres , become more and more curt . Telomeres facilitate preclude DNAfrom fraying , which would contribute to cellular aging and cancer .
As expected for someone of an extreme age , Branyas ' telomeres were almost nonexistent , Esteller aver . She also had a big universe of a particular eccentric of immune mobile phone , which is distinctive in older people .
In these two ways , Branyas ' biology looked very old — but another marker of aging on her DNA looked strangely vernal , the squad found .
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As a person ages , DNA accumulate a bunch of molecular tag on its surface , call methyl group groups . The methylation of DNAcan act like a " clock,“showing how physiologically aged a person is . Branyas ' clock looked like that of someone between eld 100 and 110 , about a decade young than she was at demise .
In that respect , " her cells still feel like they were centenarian cell , " Esteller said .
What does the study tell us about aging?
An accumulation of many piffling transmissible benefit and lifestyle pick may enable extreme longevity , Esteller concluded . give the subject ’s findings , " maybe we can consider about interference now , " he said , including possible drugs to increase life bridge .
But there may be a caveat to this enquiry and other studies like it : the old age of the subjects it rivet on .
The validation of extreme sure-enough age is controversial . For example , in 1997 , the honest-to-god person to have ever lived , Jeanne Calment of France , conk out , and her age was validate by longevity organization and the Guinness Book of World Records at 122 years older . But critic have since cast doubt on the veracity of that title , suggesting Calment actually died in 1934 at the years 59 .
They contest that her daughter , Yvonne , take on her identity to dodge tax — and in doing so , she unwittingly became the purported oldest soul ever . ( If these critics are right , the woman who give way in 1997 was in reality only 99 . )
Another study , which is currently under peer review , argue that the problem with previous - age validation go far beyond Calment . This inquiry , first released as a preprint in 2019 , suggests that regions with the highest reported proportions of extremely quondam residents aredisproportionately misfortunate and unhealthy .
" It does n’t make sense that this spirit level of poorness would prefigure well health at any geezerhood , " saidSaul Newman , a scholar at the Oxford Institution of Population Aging and Centennial State - author of that inquiry .
What does predict high number of very older people , Newman find , is inadequate record - retention . For object lesson , U.S. states found birth certificate system at different clock time , and the phone number of people age 110 and one-time drops by an estimated 69 % to 82 % after that record - keeping amend .
Often , the great unwashed born before such documentation was de rigueur might not even know their true age , Newman told Live Science . In poor region , people might also have been motivated to tack years onto their age or take on the identity of a deceased congener to meet a pension .
In Branyas ' caseful , she was bear a little less than two years after statewide birth certificates issue forth to California in July 1905 . Esteller and colleagues relied on the work of historic period - verification organisation to corroborate Branyas ' age and did not have direct access to her documents .
When asked , a representative for the Guinness Book of World record ply Live Science with ecumenical data on the organization ’s methods .
" For age - related record titles , the guidelines include requests for government issue documents and further proof to support the title , " the representative wrote in an email to Live Science . " Exact data on these guidelines is only available to applier and/ or sound representation of them . "
The hazy nature of onetime - historic period record makes interpreting enquiry on the oldest of the one-time difficult , Newman said . That Branyas ' epigenetic clock suggests she was between 100 and 110 could indeed suggest that she was a 117 - year - old who maturate unusually slowly — or it could suggest that her paperwork was wrong , and she was between 100 and 110 when she died , he said .
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" How do you tell between those two cases ? " he said . " That ’s the central problem . You do n’t know . "
On the other hand , Branyas did undeniably hand old geezerhood in enviable wellness , even live a bout of COVID-19 in 2020 . Thus , her biota might still help researchers distinguish between change colligate with healthy ageing and change associate with disease .
" For the first time you have biomarkers that can tell apart you your years , but other biomarkers that can distinguish you your pathology , " Esteller pronounce . " And these are two different thing . "
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