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bioRxiv

Brief stress-response activation promotes healthy aging in flies

Early-adulthood activation of a stress-response protein reduced mortality risk by approximately 50% across all ages and improved nerve and muscle function in aged flies.

Paper by P. Suarez Distasio, O. Tovar Ferrero, S. Saint-Roman, +2 more authorsG. Martinez Corrales · Ibmb-Csic
A fruit fly beside densely branched and sparse nerve cells, intact and fragmented muscle fibers, and a cluster of fat-body cells.

Our read

Mechanisms
Studied:
Preprint: experiments in Drosophila flies
What changed:
Early-adulthood ATF4 activation reduced mortality risk by approximately 50% across all ages
The catch:
Body-wide ATF4 activation reduced body weight and reproductive output
Why it’s aging research:
Lifespan, survival or healthspan.

Editor of record: Boris Djordjevic · AgingResearch.News

Paper
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Drosophila flies underwent experiments that temporarily increased the activity of ATF4, a protein that helps cells respond to stress, at different ages and in different tissues. Activation confined to early adulthood reduced mortality risk and improved nerve and muscle function in aged flies.

Brief activation in neurons, or nerve cells, was enough to extend lifespan, slow age-related movement decline and increase resistance to starvation in old age. It also prevented the reductions in body weight and reproductive output seen with activation throughout the body. Nerve-cell activation left lasting changes in gene activity in the fat body, an organ that stores and processes nutrients, in old age.

Why it matters

Cellular stress responses offer a way to investigate how brief events early in life can shape later health. The authors identified the duration and tissue of activation as key factors in their effects on aging.

Caveats

These experiments tested induced ATF4 activity in flies, not whether a similar approach would benefit people. The findings are from a preprint that has not been peer-reviewed.

Where the evidence stands

crc

Worms or flies: a single group. Cells, mice and humans: nothing yet.

C, W, M, H: cells, worms or flies, mice, humans. Dark: independent labs found the same change there. Light: one lab or one study. Outline: nothing yet.

Labs are independent when their papers share no last author and no institution.

Includes the processes named after it and trials of drugs aimed at it.

  • 2 independent labs in 2 countries
  • Funders: National Institutes of Health and others

Chromatin and 3D genome organization

Cells, worms or flies, mice and humans: a single group.

C, W, M, H: cells, worms or flies, mice, humans. Dark: independent labs found the same change there. Light: one lab or one study. Outline: nothing yet.

Labs are independent when their papers share no last author and no institution.

Against: findings that point the other way from most findings on the same outcome.

Company ties: findings with an author at a company, or from a paper whose competing-interests statement declares ties to one.

Includes the processes named after it and trials of drugs aimed at it.

  • 58 independent labs in 23 countries
  • 2 findings against
  • Funders: National Institutes of Health and others
  • 12 of 87 findings with company ties

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