Systematic investigation of aging-related molecular factors

California Crosspoint Academy, 25500 Industrial Blvd, Hayward, CA 94545, USA

^* Corresponding author: marvinyang1126@gmail.com

Abstract

Aging is an irreversible process that negatively impacts vitality and health. Investigation of aging on a molecular level in vertebrates revealed key regulatory genetic pathways. However, previous studies have been focused on one pathway. Moreover, the functions of small molecules taken from diet were almost neglected. Thus, current knowledge about aging lacks comprehensiveness, and most aging-related factors remain unknown. In addition, the inter- and intra- regulations of different pathways were still unclear. In this paper, we summarized regulatory pathways of aging on a molecular level, such as insulin/insulin-like growth factors signaling (IIS), target of rapamycin (TOR) pathway and telomerase-related pathways. In summary, reduced IIS and TOR signaling are anti-aging. However, in the case of telomer, which was previously shown to be associated with aging, the underlying mechanism was not well understood. Hence, we proposed design of experiments for deconvolution. Furthermore, we investigated the diet dependency of aging at a molecular level, such as how it relates to fasting, carbohydrate, and fat. Plus, we searched for biological techniques that can be used for the discovery of new aging-related pathways and the inter-/intra regulation between known genetic pathways. Our paper provided insights into the unbiased systematic investigation of aging.