The Wormy Truth About Aging

July 24, 2008 -- Forget the fountain of youth. The lowly worm may hold one of the keys to aging.

In the journal Cell, researchers report that when a worm gene called elt-3 becomes less active, lots of other genes do the same, and worms age.

So what, you ask? The scientists want to find out if a similar process happens in other animals, including humans. If so, keeping key genes active may keep aging at bay.

Stanford University's Yelena Budovskaya and colleagues basically showed that aging is written into worms' genetic script -- at least, in a lab where worms lived out their days without becoming some other animal's supper.

The elt-3 gene was one of the worms' important aging genes. When the elt-3 slowed down, aging picked up its pace.

Budovskaya's team notes that in humans and other mammals, aging has been shown to result from DNA damage, stress, and inflammation. The worm findings don't change that, but scientists write that it will be "interesting" to see if changes in gene activity are also part of the aging process. If so, that could lead to a search for ways to edit the genetic script for aging.