September 26 2018. An article that appeared on September 6, 2018 in Molecular Cell reported the discovery of researchers at Georgia State University of a protective effect on the vascular system for a molecule produced during fasting or calorie restriction.
“The most important part of aging is vascular aging,” explained senior author Ming-Hui Zou. “When people become older, the vessels that supply different organs are the most sensitive and more subject to aging damage, so studying vascular aging is very important. This study is focused on vascular aging, and in old age, what kind of changes happen and how to prevent vascular aging.”
Dr Zou’s team determined that the binding of beta-hydroxybutyrate to a specific protein increases the activity of a stem cell factor known as Oct4, which contributes to the prevention of senescence caused by DNA damage “This stem cell factor (Oct4) could be a pharmaceutical or pharmacological target for slowing down or preventing aging,” Dr Zou suggested. “Then, if the vascular system becomes younger, it is less likely to have cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer’s disease and cancer because all of these diseases are age-related.”
“How to actually delay aging is a major pathway to reducing the incident and severity of human disease.”
—D Dye