A Cross-Sectional Study of the Gut Microbiota Composition in Moscow Long-Livers

Abstract

The aim was to assess the gut microbiota of long-livers from Moscow. This study included two groups of patients who signed their consent to participate. The group of long-livers (LL) included 20 participants aged 97–100 years (4 men and 16 women). The second group included 22 participants aged 60–76 years (6 men) without clinical manifestations of chronic diseases (healthy elderly). Gut microbiota was studied by 16S rRNA sequencing. Long-livers underwent a complex geriatric assessment as well as expanded blood biochemistry. Gut microbiota composition in the cohorts was also compared with microbiome in long-livers from Japan and Italy. Russian long-livers’ microbiome contained more beneficial bacteria than healthy elderly including Ruminococcaceae, Christensenellaceae, Lactobacillaceae families. Conditional pathogens like Veillonellaceae, Mogibacteriaceae, Alcaligenaceae, Peptococcaceae, Peptostreptococcaceae were more abundant in the healthy elderly. Compared with Italian and Japanese microbiome LL, the Russian LL appeared to be more similar to the Italian cohort. Bifidobacterium/Coprococcus and Faecalibacterium/Coprococcus balances were associated with femoral and carotid intima–media thickness, respectively. Bifidobacterium/Coriobacteriaceae balance was assessed with the folic acid level and Faecalibacterium/Coriobacteriaceae_u the with Mini Nutritional Assessment score. Long-livers’ microbiome appeared to be unexpectedly balanced. The high representation of beneficial bacteria in long-livers may prevent them from low-grade inflammation and thus protect them from the development of atherosclerosis and other aging-associated conditions.

Immunosenescence and inflammaging in the aging process: age-related diseases or longevity?

“…Other Authors came to similar results when analyzing the microbiota of centenarians living in rural or isolated areas of China and Japan (Kong et al, 2016;Odamaki et al, 2016). Recently, studies involving centenarians from a rural area of India (Tuikhar et al, 2019) and Russia (Kashtanova et al, 2020) have been published, and the results were similar to those Italian, Chinese and Japanese populations in terms of increased biodiversity but with some peculiarities owing to the different lifestyle and nutritional habits.…”

The gut microbiome as a modulator of healthy ageing

“…While ageing studies in Italian, Irish and Thai individuals have reported a statistically significant reduction of Roseburia spp. abundance with age 28 , 38 , 40 , 95 , studies of Russian, Chinese and Korean populations have observed an increase 44 , 96 , 97 . In addition, contrary to many ageing-associated studies 2 , 46 , 95 , the pathobiont Bacteroides fragilis decreased with age in a general ageing-associated study in a healthy Indonesian cohort 98 .…”

“…The first category of studies provides a picture of how the gut microbiome changes with age in general, notwithstanding the fact that these are not longitudinal studies. Particularly noteworthy are studies of centenarians across various geographies and nationalities 36 – 44 . In general, the composition of the gut microbiome of centenarians (studied in countries/regions including Italy, Russia, China and India) is distinguished by a lower abundance of symbionts associated with health in younger age groups (such as Faecalibacterium spp.)…”

Comparative Analysis of Gut Microbial Composition and Functions in Przewalski’s Gazelle (Procapra przewalskii) From Various Habitats

“…Christensenellaceae R-7 group is mainly involved in host amino acid and lipid metabolism ( Waters and Ley, 2019 ). Moreover, these bacteria were considered to be potentially beneficial since they are involved in the positive regulation of the intestinal environment and are associated with immune regulation and healthy homeostasis ( Kong et al, 2016 ; Kashtanova et al, 2020 ; Li et al, 2020 ). Dominant gut microbes are considered as the result of strong selection and long-term co-evolution with the host ( Groussin et al, 2020 ).…”