AGING AND HEALTH BIOMARKER DISCOVERY—TRANSLATIONAL INSIGHTS FROM NONHUMAN PRIMATES

Abstract

An emerging paradigm in aging research identifies metabolic dysfunction as a root cause in the age-related increase in disease vulnerability. Several diseases of aging, including diabetes, cancer, and neurodegeneration, have an established metabolic component. Our studies in nonhuman primates have focused on links between metabolic status and disease vulnerability. Caloric restriction (CR) delays aging and the onset of age related disease in diverse species, including nonhuman primates. Our work demonstrates that CR animals are metabolically distinct from their control counterparts. Molecular profiling identifies CR responsive elements in the transcriptome, proteome, and metabolome that are highly enriched for metabolic pathways and in particular mitochondrial processes. These data show that improvements in health and survival are associated with changes in energy metabolism in nonhuman primates, a highly translational model for human aging. Metabolic biomarkers identified in these studies may be clinically relevant for the early identification of elevated disease risk in humans.