Written by Rebecca Varghese
We often find ourselves in a tight race against time, even without the usual dose of procrastination. But what if you could give yourself just a few more meaningful years to accomplish everything you’ve ever wanted to? While medicine and technology are rapidly advancing to improve human longevity, current treatments are effective in only alleviating stress on the aging body, not delaying or stopping the natural process of aging dead in its tracks. Part of the problem is that aging is the result of the combinatorial effects of several systems’ decline in function and efficiency. Therefore, it is challenging to find a single pathway to manipulate or a single drug that fixes everything. It is a hard puzzle to solve, but that does not stop Dr. Mahtab Jafari and her healthspan pharmacology research team at the University of California at Irvine.
Healthspan pharmacology is the study of drugs’ effects on the quality of an extended lifespan indicated by health markers such as reproductive fitness and locomotive activity [1]. It is not enough for Dr. Jafari to simply increase human life expectancy. She wants to make sure the added years are of quality—as youthful and free of physical suffering as possible. The team studies the effects of various botanical extracts on the Drosophila melanogaster, or fruit fly, one of the few species that shares roughly 75% of our disease genes [2]. The botanical extracts selected for studies are taken from a list she has compiled through both scientific literature analysis and non-scientific cultural emphasis on natural herbs and treatments. Think of her team as the mythbusters, but for botanical extracts. For example, green tea is held in high regard in many East Asian cultures for its supposed numerous health benefits. However, Dr. Jafari learned that while green tea extract increases the lifespan of male fruit flies, it actually impairs overall Drosophila development and reproduction at high doses [3]. Of all the botanical extracts studied, the team has found the most promising results from the root of a small, yellow flower known as Rhodiola rosea. The extract from the golden root has improved both life expectancy and health in not only Drosophila, but also several other model organisms such as worms and yeast probably because it affects a major pathway related to aging [5]. “Reproducibility is key,” says Jafari.
It is possible that Dr. Jafari means that in more than one interpretation. Hamiltonian’s forces of natural selection exhibit an interesting theory as to why we age. One could argue that the whole point of life is to contribute to the continuation of the race through reproduction. The human reproductive window occurs relatively early in our life and our body works very hard to fight any perturbations to the system at this time like poor diet and injury, just so we can make that successful contribution. The forces of natural selection, which are working against us as a whole, are greatest in this window. Once we pass our reproductive age, however, the forces of natural selection decrease drastically and our body no longer has to put a constant effort to preserve the body. Pathways in our system slowly start to deteriorate as is evident in the aging process [4].
As a well-established figure at UCI as one of the founders of the Pharmaceutical Sciences undergraduate program and in the pharmaceutical world for her work at UCSF and Allergan, it is ironic that Dr. Jafari strongly advises her students to avoid medication until absolutely necessary. All drugs have side effects and if we can prevent the illness from even happening, we can drastically reduce the occurrence of these unwarranted side effects. While there is a lot of work left to do in healthspan pharmacology in finding the answer to aging, Dr. Jafari says there are a few things we can do to in the meantime improve the quality of life: “eat healthy, exercise, and find something you are passionate about!”
References
- “The Science of Healthspan.” Mahtab Jafari Laboratory. UCI Pharmaceutical Sciences, n.d. Web.
- Jafari, Mahtab. “Drosophila Melanogaster as a Model System for the Evaluation of Anti-aging Compounds.” Fly 4.3 (2010): 253-57. Web.
- Lopez, Terry E., Hoang M. Pham, Julia Barbour, Phillip Tran, Benjamin Van Nguyen, Sean P. Hogan, Richelle L. Homo, Volkan Coskun, Samuel E. Schriner, and Mahtab Jafari. “The Impact of Green Tea Polyphenols on Development and Reproduction in Drosophila Melanogaster.” Journal of Functional Foods 20 (2016): 556-66. Web.
- Rose, Michael R., Casandra L. Rauser, Laurence D. Mueller, and Gregory Benford. “A Revolution for Aging Research.” Biogerontology 7.4 (2006): 269-77. Web.
- Schriner, Samuel E., Kevin Lee, Stephanie Truong, Kathyrn T. Salvadora, Steven Maler, Alexander Nam, Thomas Lee, and Mahtab Jafari. “Extension of Drosophila Lifespan by Rhodiola Rosea through a Mechanism Independent from Dietary Restriction.” PLoS ONE8.5 (2013): n. pag. Web.