Gut Microbiota Markers and Dietary Habits Associated with Extreme Longevity in Healthy Sardinian Centenarians

Abstract

This study was aimed at characterizing the gut microbiota (GM) and its functional profile in two groups of Sardinian subjects with a long healthy life expectancy, overall named Long-Lived Subjects (LLS) [17 centenarians (CENT) and 29 nonagenarians (NON)] by comparing them to 46 healthy younger controls (CTLs). In addition, the contribution of genetics and environmental factors to the GM phenotype was assessed by comparing a subgroup of seven centenarian parents (CPAR) with a paired cohort of centenarians’ offspring (COFF). The analysis was performed through Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) of the V3 and V4 hypervariable region of the 16S rRNA gene on the MiSeq Illumina platform. The Verrucomicrobia phylum was identified as the main biomarker in CENT, together with its members Verrucomicrobiaceae, Akkermansia and Akkermansia muciniphila. In NON, the strongest associations concern Actinobacteria phylum, Bifidobacteriaceae and Bifidobacterium, while in CTLs were related to the Bacteroidetes phylum, Bacteroidaceae, Bacteroides and Bacteroides spp. Intestinal microbiota of CPAR and COFF did not differ significantly from each other. Significant correlations between bacterial taxa and clinical and lifestyle data, especially with Mediterranean diet adherence, were observed. We observed a harmonically balanced intestinal community structure in which the increase in taxa associated with intestinal health would limit and counteract the action of potentially pathogenic bacterial species in centenarians. The GM of long-lived individuals showed an intrinsic ability to adapt to changing environmental conditions, as confirmed by functional analysis. The GM analysis of centenarians’ offspring suggest that genetics and environmental factors act synergistically as a multifactorial cause in the modulation of GM towards a phenotype similar to that of centenarians, although these findings need to be confirmed by larger study cohorts and by prospective studies.

Gut microbiota as an antioxidant system in centenarians associated with high antioxidant activities of gut-resident Lactobacillus

“…S 1h ). This is consistent with the results of Palmas et al 27 , who showed that the main biomarkers associated with centenarians belonged to the Verrucomicrobia phylum, including the Akkermansia muciniphila species, considered to be a significant biomarker of gut homeostasis for its ability to promote intestinal integrity. We analyzed the phylogenetic relationship of top 100 species at the genus level, and clearly observed that relative abundances of Akkermansia , Methanobrevibacter , Klebsiella , Parabacteroides , Phascolarctobacterium , Barnosiella , Alisipes , Butyricimonas , Lachnoclostridium , and Blautia , etc.…”

Regular fecal microbiota transplantation to Senescence Accelerated Mouse-Prone 8 (SAMP8) mice delayed the aging of locomotor and exploration ability by rejuvenating the gut microbiota

“… Badal et al (2020) and Zhang et al (2021) both find that Akkermansia is positively related to age. Palmas et al (2022) also report that one of the main biomarkers of centenarians is Akkermansia . Moreover, as a metabolizing beneficial bacterium ( Vallianou et al, 2020 ; Yoon et al, 2021 ), the increase of Akkermansia may also increase the resilience to metabolic aging of the body.…”

Application of Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) to Elucidate the Connections among Smell, Obesity with Related Metabolic Alterations, and Eating Habit in Patients with Weight Excess

“…As regards the dietary approach, the Mediterranean Diet (MD), consisting of a high consumption of food of vegetable origin and monounsaturated fats and a low consumption of red or processed meat and saturated fats, is known to have a protective effect against mortality and several chronic non-communicable diseases such as cardiovascular or neurodegenerative diseases, cancer, type 2 diabetes mellitus and obesity [ 61 , 62 , 63 ]. MD has also been shown to positively modulate the gut microbiota composition in patients with obesity [ 64 ], and an association between high adherence to MD and a beneficial microbiota pattern has been reported in extremely long-lived individuals [ 65 ]. However, despite the numerous reported health benefits, adherence to MD is progressively lowering, especially among young people in favor of a globalized diet based on packaged processed food rich in simple sugar and saturated fats [ 66 ].…”