Gut Bacteria That Decline With Age Reduce Inflammation and Improve Cognition and Movement in Old Mice

A study has identified a bacterial species whose levels steadily fall with age in human gut microbiome data, then given it to old mice and confirmed that it extended their healthspan. Researchers at the Beijing Institute of Genomics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, published the results in Nature Aging.

'MicroAge,' a microbial aging clock

Using gut microbiome data from several Chinese cohorts, the researchers built a microbiome-based aging clock called MicroAge and found that the pattern of aging differs by enterotype. In the process, Bifidobacterium pseudocatenulatum was identified as a species that declines consistently with age. When this bacterium was given orally to naturally aging mice, gut health improved, inflammation in multiple organs decreased, and cognitive and motor performance improved.

The researchers confirmed that 5-aminovaleric acid betaine (5-AVAB), a metabolite made by this bacterium, also declines with age in people. Giving 5-AVAB alone reproduced some of the effects, including better cognitive and motor function and less multi-organ inflammation. They suggest that inflammaging, chronic low-grade inflammation, can be targeted through microbial pathways.

The functional improvements were confirmed only in mice, and the abstract does not give sample sizes for the cohorts or the animal experiments. It is too early to treat this as grounds for recommending that people take a particular strain or metabolite.