Google “anti-aging” and thousands of products pop up, from skincare to steroids. Billionaires like Jeff Bezos, Sam Altman and Peter Thiel are pouring millions of dollars into technologies that can extend life. Nothing comes with a guarantee, but a report published in the peer-reviewed journal Nutrients details why neem has the potential to extend life.
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Researchers took a multi-pronged approach to demonstrating how and why neem works for both yeast and human cells. Yeast cells are remarkably similar to human cells, particularly in nutrient and energy signaling, DNA repair and mitochondrial homeostasis, all key issues in aging. In fact, yeast-based studies previously helped researchers identify resveratrol and spermidine as potential anti-aging drugs.
To see the impact on those yeast cells, some were pretreated with neem leaf extract while others served as control. Both were exposed to hydrogen peroxide, a potent oxidant known to disrupt and then kill cells. Lifespans for the treated cells were “significantly extended.” To determine how it worked, they studied the impact of neem on an improved oxidative stress response. Most untreated yeast cells died within 120 minutes, but the nearly half of the treated cells survived.
They took a slightly different approach to studying the response in human cells. First, they identified 61 potential gene targets for 23 compounds found in neem and tracked how each of those targets reacted to neem. Across the board, the key response was enhanced oxidoreductase activity and longevity-regulating pathways, supporting neem’s long-recognized antioxidant properties. Neem also “effectively reduced” senescence – or biological aging – in those human cells, probably using the same longevity-regulating pathways.
Aging, of course, is a multi-faceted process and the researchers report that compounds found in neem target multiple pathways. It gets really complicated here, but it boils down to those two key results – increased oxidoreductase activity that alleviates oxidative-stress-induced senescence inhuman cells.
Preventing or reducing oxidative stress is a top priority in nearly every longevity study, as well as work focused on diseases ranging from cancer to dementia and heart disease to arthritis. Researchers have long recognized the antioxidants in neem, but this is the first study to document its impact on longevity at a cellular level. (Previous work, however, focused on neem in skincare and its impact on both bald mice and human cells exposed to extreme levels of sunlight.)