Summary: Feeding fruit flies a combination of probiotics and Triphala, a traditional herbal formulation, increased lifespan by about 60% and reduced signs of age-related disease, according to researchers.
Source: McGill University.
What we eat—and what our gut bacteria consume—shapes how we age. A team at McGill University reports that adding a synbiotic composed of probiotics plus Triphala, a polyphenol-rich herbal supplement, to the diet of fruit flies extended their lifespan and protected them against multiple markers of aging and chronic disease.
The study, published in Scientific Reports, explores how altering the gut microbiome affects aging-related physiology. Researchers fed Drosophila melanogaster a diet supplemented with a probiotic formulation together with Triphala, a mixture of three fruits used in Ayurvedic medicine. Flies given the combined supplement lived up to 66 days—roughly 26 days longer than control flies—while also showing reduced insulin resistance, lower inflammation, and diminished oxidative stress compared with unsupplemented animals.
“Probiotics can significantly change the gut microbial community and the way our food is metabolized,” says Satya Prakash, professor of biomedical engineering at McGill and senior author of the study. “A single probiotic formulation can influence multiple biochemical signaling pathways, producing broad physiological benefits. That explains why our synbiotic had such pronounced effects across diverse aging markers.”
Fruit flies share many conserved biochemical pathways with mammals—approximately 70% similarity—making them a useful model for initial investigations into interventions that could translate to human health, the authors note. While effects in humans may be less dramatic than those seen in flies, the team suggests that combining Triphala with specific probiotics may promote healthier aging.
The researchers connect their findings to the gut-brain axis, the bidirectional communication network between the gut microbiota and the brain. Recent work implicates this axis in a variety of conditions—irritable bowel syndrome, neurodegenerative diseases, mood disorders and more—and shows that manipulation of the microbiome can alter systemic physiology. The synbiotic tested in this study produced robust, multi-pathway benefits that few prior microbiota-targeted interventions have achieved.
Learning from traditional medicine
Triphala is an Ayurvedic herbal blend made from amalaki, bibhitaki and haritaki. Lead author Susan Westfall, a former McGill PhD student now working as a postdoctoral fellow, explains that the study grew out of long-standing interest in natural products from traditional Indian medicine and their potential to influence neurodegeneration and other age-related disorders.
“We hoped combining Triphala with probiotics would outperform the individual components,” Westfall says. “We did not expect the formulation to have such wide-ranging and powerful effects on physiology.”
The work has been accompanied by a provisional patent filing by a company co-founded by the authors, underscoring the translational interest in microbiome-based therapeutics. Given the broad physiological benefits observed in the fly model, the investigators propose that similar synbiotic approaches could be explored for human conditions tied to aging and metabolic dysregulation, including diabetes, obesity, chronic inflammation, neurodegeneration, mood disorders, irritable bowel syndrome and certain cancer-related pathways.
Funding: Supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.
Source: Justin Dupuis, McGill University
Publisher: Organized by NeuroscienceNews.com
Image Source: NeuroscienceNews.com image is in the public domain.
Original Research: Open access research article “Longevity extension in Drosophila through gut-brain communication” by Susan Westfall, Nikita Lomis & Satya Prakash in Scientific Reports. Published May 30, 2018.
doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-25382-z
Abstract
Longevity extension in Drosophila through gut-brain communication
Aging and the development of chronic disease arise from interacting processes including metabolic stress, inflammation, oxidative damage and altered mitochondrial function. Changes in the gut microbiota have been associated with age-related phenotypes, and probiotics show potential for managing chronic disease progression. This study demonstrates that novel probiotic and synbiotic formulations can extend lifespan in male Drosophila melanogaster through mechanisms involving the gut-brain axis, with implications for chronic disease management. Both probiotic and synbiotic treatments improved markers of metabolic stress by reducing insulin resistance and normalizing energy-regulatory pathways. They also mitigated inflammation, oxidative stress and the decline in mitochondrial complex integrity. Across nearly all measured pathways, the synbiotic produced stronger effects than either component alone, indicating a combinatorial benefit. By targeting multiple key risk factors of aging simultaneously, microbiome-directed therapies represent a promising strategy against neurodegeneration, metabolic disease, cardiovascular disease and other age-related chronic conditions.