Shona H. Wood, Sipko van Dam, Thomas Craig, Robi Tacutu, Amy O’Toole, Brian J. Merry, João Pedro de Magalhães
Abstract
Caloric restriction (CR) can increase longevity in rodents and improve memory function in humans. α-Lipoic acid (LA) has been shown to improve memory function in rats, but not longevity. While studies have looked at survival in rodents after switching from one diet to another, the underlying mechanisms of the beneficial effects of CR and LA supplementation are unknown. Here, we use RNA-seq in cerebral cortex from rats subjected to CR and LA-supplemented rats to understand how changes in diet can affect aging, neurodegeneration and longevity.
Gene expression changes during aging in ad libitum-fed rats are largely prevented by CR, and neuroprotective genes are overexpressed in response to both CR and LA diets with a strong overlap of differentially expressed genes between the two diets. Moreover, a number of genes are differentially expressed specifically in rat cohorts exhibiting diet-induced life extension. Finally, we observe that LA supplementation inhibits histone deacetylase (HDAC) protein activity in vitro in rat astrocytes. We find a single microRNA, miR-98-3p, that is overexpressed during CR feeding and LA dietary supplementation; this microRNA alters HDAC and histone acetyltransferase (HAT) activity, which suggests a role for HAT/HDAC homeostasis in neuroprotection.
This study presents extensive data on the effects of diet and aging on the cerebral cortex transcriptome, and also emphasises the importance of epigenetics and post-translational modifications in longevity and neuroprotection.
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 29. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 02 April 2018.
All research outputs
#1,346,832
of 25,374,917 outputs
Outputs from Genome Biology
#1,054
of 4,467 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#22,606
of 396,426 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Genome Biology
#29
of 72 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 25,374,917 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 94th percentile: it's in the top 10% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 4,467 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 27.6. This one has done well, scoring higher than 76% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 396,426 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 94% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 72 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 59% of its contemporaries.
