Metabolomics to Study Human Aging: A Review

Aging and Pathological Conditions Similarity Revealed by Meta-Analysis of Metabolomics Studies Suggests the Existence of the Health and Age-Related Metapathway

Background: The incidence of many diseases increases with age and leads to multimorbidity, characterized by the presence of multiple diseases in old age. This phenomenon is closely related to systemic metabolic changes; the most suitable way to study it is through metabolomics. The use of accumulated metabolomic data to characterize this phenomenon at the system level may provide additional insight into the nature and strength of aging-disease relationships. Methods: For this purpose, metabolic changes associated with human aging and metabolic alterations under different pathological conditions were compared. To do this, the published results of metabolomic studies on human aging were compared with data on metabolite alterations collected in the human metabolome database through metabolite set enrichment analysis (MSEA) and combinatorial analysis. Results: It was found that human aging and pathological conditions involve the set of the same metabolic pathways with a probability of 99.96%. These data show the high identity of the aging process and the development of diseases at the metabolic level and allow to identify the set of metabolic pathways reflecting age-related changes closely associated with health. Based on these pathways, a metapathway was compiled, changes in which are simultaneously associated with health and age. Conclusions: The knowledge about the strength of the convergence of aging and pathological conditions has been supplemented by the rigor evidence at the metabolome level, which also made it possible to outline the age and health-relevant place in the human metabolism.

Mechanism of Bazi Bushen capsule in delaying the senescence of mesenchymal stem cells based on network pharmacology and experimental validation

Ageing is becoming an increasingly serious problem; therefore, there is an urgent need to find safe and effective anti-ageing drugs.

Aims

To investigate the effects of Bazi Bushen capsule (BZBS) on the senescence of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) and explore its mechanism of action.

Methods

Network pharmacology was used to predict the targets of BZBS in delaying senescence in MSCs. For in vitro studies, MSCs were treated with D-gal, BZBS, and NMN, and cell viability, cell senescence, stemness-related genes, and cell cycle were studied using cell counting kit-8 (CCK-8) assay, SA-β-galactosidase (SA-β-gal) staining, Quantitative Real-Time PCR (qPCR) and flow cytometry (FCM), respectively. Alkaline phosphatase (ALP), alizarin red, and oil red staining were used to determine the osteogenic and lipid differentiation abilities of MSCs. Finally, the expression of senescence-related genes and cyclin-related factors was detected by qPCR and western blotting.

Results

Network pharmacological analysis suggested that BZBS delayed cell senescence by interfering in the cell cycle. Our in vitro studies suggested that BZBS could significantly increase cell viability (P < 0.01), decrease the quantity of β-galactosidase+ cells (P < 0.01), downregulate p16 and p21 (P < 0.05, P < 0.01), improve adipogenic and osteogenic differentiation, and upregulate Nanog, OCT4 and SOX2 genes (P < 0.05, P < 0.01) in senescent MSCs. Moreover, BZBS significantly reduced the proportion of senescent MSCs in the G0/G1 phase (P < 0.01) and enhanced the expression of CDK4, Cyclin D1, and E2F1 (P < 0.05, P < 0.01, respectively). Upon treatment with HY-50767A, a CDK4 inhibitor, the upregulation of E2F1 was no longer observed in the BZBS group.

Conclusions

BZBS can protect MSCs against D-gal-induced senescence, which may be associated with cell cycle regulation via the Cyclin D1/CDK4/E2F1 signalling pathway.