“A Collective Analysis of Lifespan-Extending Compounds in Diverse Model Organisms, and of Species Whose Lifespan Can Be Extended the Most by the Application of Compounds”, Caglar Berkel, Ercan Cacan2021-10-21 (, , ; similar)⁠:

Research on aging and lifespan-extending compounds has been carried out using diverse model organisms, including yeast, worms, flies and mice. Many studies reported the identification of novel lifespan-extending compounds in different species, some of which may have the potential to translate to the clinic. However, studies collectively and comparatively analyzing all the data available in these studies are highly limited.

Here, by using data from the DrugAge database, we first identified top compounds in terms of their effects on percent change in average lifespan of diverse organisms, collectively (n = 1,728).

We found that, when data from all organisms studied were combined for each compound, aspirin resulted in the highest percent increase in average lifespan (52.01%), followed by minocycline (27.30%), N-acetyl cysteine (17.93%), nordihydroguaiaretic acid (17.65%) and rapamycin (15.66%), in average. We showed that minocycline led to the highest percent increase in average lifespan among other compounds, in both Drosophila melanogaster (28.09%) and Caenorhabditis elegans (26.67%), followed by curcumin (11.29%) and gluconic acid (5.51%) for D. melanogaster and by metformin (26.56%), resveratrol (15.82%) and quercetin (9.58%) for C. elegans.

Moreover, we found that top 5 species whose lifespan can be extended the most by compounds with lifespan-extending properties are Philodina acuticornis, Acheta domesticus, Aeolosoma viride, Mytilina brevispina and Saccharomyces cerevisiae (211.80%, 76%, 70.26%, 55.18% and 45.71% in average, respectively).

This study provides novel insights on lifespan extension in model organisms, and highlights the importance of databases with high quality content curated by researchers from multiple resources, in aging research.

Figure 1: Top compounds in terms of their effects on average lifespan change in diverse organisms collectively. Percent change in average lifespan of organisms treated with longevity-extending compounds, when data from all organisms studied were combined for each compound. Top plot: Compounds were ordered as the compound which caused the highest percent increase in average lifespan in all organisms combined, given at the top of the plot. Data points for each species were given a different color. Yellow vertical line indicates no change (0%) in average lifespan. Vertical lines in boxplots indicates the median value. Legend shows the color code for each species. Bottom plot: Distribution of the percent change in average lifespan for each drug, when data from all organisms studied were combined per compound. Yellow vertical line indicates no change (0%) in average lifespan. Values in red at the end of x-axis for every y-value indicate mean percent change in average lifespan for each compound. Compounds were ordered as the compound which caused the highest percent increase in average lifespan (aspirin, 52.01%) in all organisms combined, given at the top of plot. Legend shows the color scale indicating percent change in average lifespan.

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A Collective Analysis of Lifespan-Extending Compounds in Diverse Model Organisms, and of Species Whose Lifespan Can Be Extended the Most by the Application of Compounds