Could Vitamin D be the Key to Fight off Aging?

 

A recent study published in the American Journal of Clinical nutrition found conclusive evidence that people taking daily vitamin D3 supplements exhibited less telomere shortening than those taking a placebo. 

Telomeres are the end caps on chromosomes that serve as protection. Over time, those end caps shorten due to wear and tear and leave the chromosome more vulnerable to the signs of aging, including diseases linked to aging.

This study showed that such supplements could possibly deter biological aging by a significant amount, especially when taken in conjuction with regular exercise and a healthy diet. 

While reasonable data was collected in support of vitamin D countering biological aging, there is still much more research to be done to further understand how substantial the effects are and how/if the daily recommended guidlines for vitamin D instake should be adjusted. 

News Article Source: https://www.usnews.com/news/health-news/articles/2025-05-27/vitamin-d-might-fend-off-biological-aging

More on Telomeres: https://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/basics/telomeres/

How Telomere Biology Is Changing Our Understanding of Aging

Researchers at the Children’s Medical Research Institute have identified a group of proteins, NONO, SFPQ, and PSPC1, all part of the DBHS family, that play a crucial role in helping telomerase reach and maintain telomeres. Telomerase is the enzyme responsible for rebuilding telomeres, the protective caps at the ends of chromosomes that naturally shorten as cells divide. Without these DBHS proteins, telomerase struggles to access telomeres, which means the cell cannot properly maintain chromosome stability.

This finding is important because telomere maintenance lies at the center of both aging and cancer biology. When telomeres become too short, cells enter senescence or die, a key driver of aging and age-related diseases. But in many cancers, telomerase often becomes overactive, allowing cancer cells to divide indefinitely. By uncovering the proteins that guide and support telomerase, scientists are focusing on creating drugs that block these proteins which could limit cancer cell immortality and treatments that support them to help slow down cellular aging.

The related article on telomere inheritance provides valuable context, but the major breakthrough lies in identifying the proteins that regulate telomerase activity opening the door to more precise control over telomere length in future medical research.

Main article: https://phys.org/news/2025-07-identification-proteins-telomerase-impact-aging.pdf

2nd article: https://phys.org/news/2025-09-biologists-reveal-telomere-length-inheritance.html

Could we live forever in Outer Space?

Could we live forever in Outer Space?

During my senior year in high school my AP Physics teacher would occasionally inform the class on new

and exciting things happening in science. One of which being NASA’s experiment with twins and

telomeres. I thought it would be fitting to write a blogpost on it.

To sum things up, a pair of twins was monitored for a year while one was in space and the other on Earth.

The results would help improve and prevent health risks associated with space flight. Things like gene

expression and the performance of the immune system were monitored. To me, the most interesting thing

discovered over the year was the change in telomere length. In the article telomeres are described as

“biomarkers of aging at the end of chromosomes.” The twin in space (Scott) was found to have longer

telomeres that returned to average length after returning home, while the twin on Earth (Mark) was found

to have stable telomeres. This information certainly is the starting point to more research and more

information. I think it is safe to joke that the increase in telomere length in space means immortal life (in

space).

https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-s-landmark-twins-study-reveals-resilience-of-human-body-in-space 

Related Article: https://www.genomeweb.com/genetic-research/nasa-twins-study-finds-space-linked-changes-gene-expression-telomere-length

Parrots' keep talking their ways into longer lives

       

         Morgan Wirthlin, a geneticist at the University of Carnegie Mellon, along with her colleagues from other institutes are the first to preform a comparative study on parrot genomes. The study includes over 20 different species of aves while focusing on four species of parrots and dives into their discovery of a section of genes that are linked with the bird's incredible life and cognitive longevity. As you know from this course, the longevity of ones life is correlated to the life of the chromosome's telomeres. As a cell replicates an overhang occurs at the end of the chromosome (telomere) therefore causing the chromosome to shorten by approximately 100bps everytime it replicates. Telomerase is an enzyme that is responsible for the repair of the telomeres so that this reduction in base pairs is fixed. However telomerase is barely active in somatic cells therefore they tend to be reduced which then leads to aging.

          Wirthlin mentions that parrots are known to live up to 90 years in captivity which is relative to hundreds of years for a human life span! Through our knowledge of how lifespan is limited one can only infer that parrots have increased levels of telomere repair/protection whether its through telomerase or another enzyme/process. Through the study a pivotal discovery was made. In the 344 genes that were looked at from high longevity birds, 6% have been previously noted to improve longevity of model organisms in a controlled experiment. However the other 94% of those genes have never been connected to improve the lifespan of any other organism from the scientific community's knowledge. TERT (telomerase reverse transcriptase) is part of the whole telomerase compound that protects against cell cenescence, which is the cell ceasing to divide. The study showed that TERT had two positive sites in which this was present in high longevity birds compared to zero in humans. This change in TERT activity could be a plausible explanation in the enhancement of the birds lifespan. One drawback was that TERT could have risks of causing increased cell proliferation and tumor formation therefore doing more harm than good. But the parrots also were found to have genes BUB1B, BUB3, KIF4A, KIF1BP, and CCNE1 which link with controlling cell proliferation and tumor formation. The combination of their telomerase activity and cell-cycle regulation could be revolutionary for our knowledge in preventing or slowing down the rate of cancer in mammalian species. This could also be the first steps in identifying what could slow down the destruction of telomeres or even prevent it all together. 

LINKS:
News report from Science Daily 
Journal article from Current Biology

More Air Pollution Equals Shorter telomeres

There has been growing evidence that large exposure time to air pollution can result in developing health problems. Such as cancer, heart diseases, and respiratory illnesses. In a study done by JAMA Pediatrics, they have observed that moms that were exposed to air pollution for a longer period of time during pregnancy resulted in their babies having shorter telomeres. A telomere is a region of repetitive DNA at the end of a chromosome which protects the end of the chromosome from deterioration. This study was conducted on 641 newborns whose mothers were exposed to high levels of air pollution. It was determined that these newborns were born with 8.8% shorter telomeres in their cord blood cells and 13.2% shorter telomeres in their placenta cells than those whose mothers were exposed to less pollution.
Air pollution had the strongest impact on the babies when the mothers were exposed during the second trimester. Surprisingly mothers that were exposed to high levels of air pollution during their third trimester resulted in the babies being born with longer telomeres to those whose mothers were exposed to less air pollution. It is not yet clear how these newborns would have benefitted from air pollution that would increase their telomeres. This study indicated that these newborns would age faster throughout their lifetime because of having shorter telomeres. A couple other factors to keep in mind are that air pollution could have not been the only leading cause of for the shortening of the babies telomeres, events such as stress, smoking, violence can have an impact on the baby's development.

http://time.com/4984038/air-pollution-pregnancy-babies-aging/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3370421/