Study reveals how red blood cells may help stave off aging

Between 1960 and 2015, average life span at birth increased by ten years in america, from 70 to 79 years, and is expected to rise still further.

While this reflects the success of modern medicine, in addition, it means that a growing proportion of the populace has to live with the physical and cognitive deterioration that is included with old age.

Finding new methods to help persons age well, and not just live longer, has turned into a priority.

One clue to achieving this lies in the idea that aging is along with a decrease in the way to obtain oxygen to tissues. Researchers advise that triggers immune changes that promote chronic inflammation, which is associated with virtually all conditions of old age.

Among the many potential consequences of this “inflammaging” could possibly be cognitive decline and hearing loss.

There is, however, evidence that bettering oxygen supply can reverse some cellular signs of aging. For instance, one small study found that hyperbaric oxygen therapy, which is a treatment which involves breathing almost pure oxygen, seemed to rejuvenate immune cells in older adults.

Another study discovered that red blood cells react to the low-oxygen conditions of high altitudes by increasing the volume of oxygen they deliver to tissues. They do that through increased signaling by a receptor within their membrane, referred to as the adenosine receptor A2B or ADORA2B, which promotes the release of oxygen by hemoglobin.

Aging in general, but particularly some neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease, is connected with reduced activity in the same metabolic pathway.

Now, research in mice led by the University of Texas McGovern Medical School in Houston has discovered that ADORA2B also seems to stave off a few of the ramifications of aging by increasing oxygen supply to tissues.

Theoretically, a drug that increases activity in this pathway may help combat age-related declines.

“So far, there is no such drug available,” Dr. Yang Xia, who led the analysis, told Medical News Today.

However, she also noted that the discovery that hyperbaric oxygen treatment can reverse a number of the ramifications of aging on human blood cells shows that it might work.

“Our finding immediately highlights that boosting O2 [oxygen] delivery mediated by ADORA2B signaling is probable a new rejuvenating approach,” she said.

The scientists studied mice genetically engineered to lack ADORA2B in the membranes of their red blood cells.

These animals seemed to age at a younger age than normal mice. In addition they experienced steeper declines in their spatial learning, memory, and hearing abilities.

On a cellular level, the rodents showed signs of inflammaging, including increased production of pro-inflammatory cytokines, or signaling molecules that encourage inflammation.

“Our findings reveal that the red blood cell ADORA2B signaling cascade combats early onset of age-related decline in cognition, memory and hearing by promoting oxygen delivery in mice and immediately highlight multiple new rejuvenating targets,” says Dr. Xia.

However, more research is required to determine whether ADORA2B levels decline with age in normal mice, and whether drugs that activate the ADORA2B pathway can slow down age-related lack of hearing and cognition.

Studies in humans may also be on the cards.

“We intend to validate our mouse finding in humans soon,” Dr. Xia told MNT.

Among the limitations of studying aging by conducting experiments in animals such as for example mice and fruit flies is that their life spans are so much shorter than ours.

Humans already are evolutionarily adapted to live longer than these creatures, so the potential for any more gains in healthy life spans could be more limited.