The Genetics of Human Longevity in a Nutshell: Only a Few Identified Variants, and Everything Else a Mystery

The human genetics of longevity are exceedingly complex, that much is possible to say from the research to date. Nearly every study of associations between gene variants and longevity in a human population identifies some correlations, and, barring just a few genes, none of those associations are found in any other study. So the genetics of longevity involves myriad tiny conditional contributions, each such contribution very dependent on a web of environmental factors and a network of other gene variants. This is one of the reasons why I see efforts to map the genetics of centenarians and long-lived families to be of only scientific interest. Given what we know of the genetics of longevity, research programs of that nature are very unlikely to deliver the basis for therapies that can make any meaningful difference to the pace of aging. Human average life expectancy in developed countries has increased dramatically in the last century, a phenomenon which is potentially accompanied by a significant rise in multi-morbidity and frailty among older individuals. Nevertheless, some individuals appear someway resistant to causes of death, such as cancer and heart disease, compared with the rest of the population, and are able to reach very old ages in good clinical conditions, while others are not. Thus, during the last two decades we have witnessed an increase in the number of studies on biological and molecular factors associated with the variation in healthy aging and lon...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs