Prof. Dongryeol Ryu (School of Medicine)’s Research Team 

Discovered the Key Ingredients for the Lifespan Extension Effect through Dietary Restriction

- ‘L-threonine’ supplementation increases healthy life

- Published in the international academic journal, Nature Communication

[Photo] (left) Prof. Dongryeol Ryu (SKKU School of Medicine) / Dr. Juwon Kim (Amore Pacific)

Prof. Dongryeol Ryu (School of Medicine)’s research team had a joint research project with Amore Pacific to investigate the basis and core component of lifespan increase through dietary restriction. The research team published the result that the supply of the necessary amino acid, L-Threonine, induces an increase in healthspan in the renowned international academic journal, Nature Communications (IF = 17.7) on November 1^st.

Recently, researchers are focusing on not only just increasing lifespan but also extending the period of a healthy state and maintaining it to achieve higher standards of living, also known as increasing ‘healthspan’. A dietary limitation that gathered the public’s interest as the ‘occasional fast’ is known as the most certain way to expand lifespan by increasing the energy efficiency of the body but in-depth studies such as which metabolites are involved were insufficient.

Prof. Ryu’s research team analyzed metabolites of a specific increase in the experimental group of Caenorhabditis elegans which are known to live longer due to the mutation of specific DNA and dietary restrictions. Then, they concluded that among those metabolites, the common increase of the necessary amino acid, L-Threonine, which cannot be synthesized inside their bodies, delayed aging and promoted lifespan significantly.

In addition, the experimental group that had L-Threonine injection survived 15-18% longer than the control group and found out the behavior was more agile and had much more antioxidant enzymes. Through this, it was confirmed that it protects cells from Ferroptosis which is recently known as one of the causes of cellular aging, and induces a healtspan.

Prof. Ryu said, “This study is a monumental achievement of discovering the mechanism of new longevity, but further research is still needed on how L-Threonine regulates Ferroptosis. Further research may develop a relatively simple method of extending healthspan.”

The first author, Dr. Juwon Kim, from Amore Pacific added, “Understanding and utilizing metabolites related to aging can increase healthspan and change metabolism efficiently. This requires further research.”

This study was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea's Mid-sized Research Project, Regional Innovation Leading Research Center, and Amore Pacific Technology Research Institute. The co-researchers of this project are: Dr. Yunju Jo (SKKU) and Dr. Donghyun Jo (Amore Pacific Technology Research Institute).

※ Paper Title: L-threonine promotes healthspan by expediting ferritin-dependent ferroptosis inhibition in C. elegans

※ DOI: doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-34265-x

*Caenorhabditis elegans: It has 65% genome similarity compared to humans and controls cell division and defects of cells increase as cells age, just like humans. Often used for aging experiments since its anatomic simplicity and short average lifespan of a month.

*Ferroptosis: A phenomenon of cell death. It is known that active oxygen generation due to errors in the decomposition reaction of iron and oxygen in the body causes oxidation damage to the lipids of the cell membrane, a kind of protective barrier of the cell, leading to cell death and cell aging.

*Healthy aging: Developed concept of longevity as people realize living a healthy, independent life is more important than just living longer. Many researchers are currently studying increasing healthspan than lifespan.