Association of nutraceutical supplements with longer telomere length

Abstract

Telomeres are nucleotide tandem repeats located at the tip of eukaryotic chromosomes that maintain genomic integrity. The gradual shortening of telomeres leads to cellular senescence and apoptosis, a key mechanism of aging and age-related chronic diseases. Epigenetic factors, such as nutrition, exercise and tobacco can affect the rate at which telomeres shorten and can modify the risk of developing chronic diseases. In this study, we evaluated the effects of a combination of nutraceutical supplements (NS) on telomere length (TL) in healthy volunteers with no medical history of any disease. Participants (n=47) were selected from healthy outpatients visiting a private clinic and were divided into the experimental group (n=16), that received the NS and the control group (n=31). We estimated the length of single telomeres in metaphase spread leukocytes, isolated from peripheral blood, using quantitative-fluorescent in situ hybridization (Q-FISH) analysis. The length of the whole telomere genome was significantly increased (P<0.05) for the mean, 1st quartile and median measurements in the experimental group. Similar findings were observed for short TL (20th percentile) (P<0.05) for the median and 3rd quartile measurements in the NS group, compared to the control group. The beneficial effects of the supplements on the length of short telomeres remained significant (P<0.05) following adjustment for age and sex. Telomeres were moderately longer in female patients compared to the male patients. On the whole, the findings of this study suggest that the administration of NS may be linked to sustaining the TL.

Telomerase and telomeres in aging theory and chronographic aging theory (Review)

“…Therefore, it is likely that blood polyunsaturated fatty acid levels are involved in preventing telomere shortening over time (155). in agreement with this, recent studies revealed that the administration of nutraceutical supplements to healthy individuals is implicated in Tel maintenance (156). Participants were selected from healthy outpatients and divided into an intervention group that received nutraceutical supplements and a control group.…”

Lifestyle, Oxidative Stress, and Antioxidants: Back and Forth in the Pathophysiology of Chronic Diseases

“…In the aging process, it has been noticed that high-molecular protein aggregates accumulate in cells (Davalli et al, 2016). Predominantly, these aggregates are made from proteins, with the remainder consisting of various lipids (Barrera, 2012;Takalo et al, 2013;Tsoukalas et al, 2019b). Most of the proteins aggregated are oxidized/modified by different reactive metabolites, and they could bind to cellular proteins.…”

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“…Mechanistic reasons for these diseases include weakness of antigen recognition, decreased immune cell quantity and functionality, increased level/length and timing of humoral immune alterations of components, reduced initiation of cellular responses, and memory cell disorders. Other associations with immunodeficiency include age-dependent humoral and immune cell alterations; immunosenescence; malnutrition (19); protein-energy-micronutrient deficit and telomere shortening (20). In addition, past or current treatments affect the scalable ineffectiveness of vaccines in both older adults (21) and children (22), especially in immunocompromised (23).…”