{"id":179312,"date":"2025-10-04T19:46:16","date_gmt":"2025-10-04T19:46:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/179312\/"},"modified":"2025-10-04T19:46:16","modified_gmt":"2025-10-04T19:46:16","slug":"she-was-the-worlds-oldest-person-living-to-117-what-do-her-genes-reveal-about-the-secret-of-longevity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/179312\/","title":{"rendered":"She was the world\u2019s oldest person, living to 117. What do her genes reveal about the secret of longevity?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n When a supercentenarian<\/a>, someone who is older than 110 years old, is interviewed, they are inevitably asked to share their tips for longevity<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n

\n But what if their secret could be studied scientifically? What could their genome tell us about ageing and why they avoid the diseases that claim so many other people? If any secrets were uncovered, might they, perhaps, help others to live as long, too?\n <\/p>\n

\n Questions like these are at the heart of a recent paper, published Wednesday in the journal Cell Reports Medicine<\/a>, which investigated the genome of Maria Branyas Morera<\/a>, a US-born Spanish woman who died in August 2024 at age 117 years and 168 days, shortly after becoming the world\u2019s oldest living person.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cShe was a very generous person, trying to help, so it was great to work with her,\u201d Dr. Manel Esteller, a researcher at the Josep Carreras Leukaemia Research Institute in Barcelona, Spain, who co-authored the study, told CNN.\n <\/p>\n

\"Branyas,<\/p>\n

\n Esteller and the research team took samples from Branyas\u2019 blood, saliva, urine and stool before examining her genome and comparing it with those belonging to 75 other Iberian women.\n <\/p>\n

\n Overall, they concluded, Branyas lived so long because she both won the genetic lottery and lived a healthy lifestyle. She both possessed genes that guarded against common age-related diseases and followed a healthy lifestyle and diet.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cShe was a lucky person from the start, and she got an extra plus through her life,\u201d said Esteller, attributing about half of Branyas\u2019 longevity to her genetics and about half to her lifestyle.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cShe never smoked, she never drank alcohol, she liked to work until she could (not) \u2026 She lived in the countryside, she did moderated exercise (mostly walking one hour a day) \u2026 She had a diet that included olive oil, Mediterranean style and, in her case, yogurt,\u201d he told CNN.\n <\/p>\n

\n If there were one slightly unusual thing about Branyas\u2019 lifestyle, it might be her consumption of yogurt, as she ate three servings a day.\n <\/p>\n

\n Researchers hypothesized that, along with the rest of her diet, this habit kept her gut microbiome resembling that of a much younger person and reduced her levels of inflammation.\n <\/p>\n

\"Maria<\/p>\n

\n Still, Branyas\u2019 love of yoghurt didn\u2019t necessarily caused her \u201coverall fitness\u201d and her gut microbiome is \u201cprobably reflecting she\u2019s actually a very good host to all those microbes because of all the other factors that are good about her body,\u201d said Claire Steves, a professor of aging at King\u2019s College London, who wasn\u2019t involved in the study.\n <\/p>\n

\n Aside from eating lots of yogurt, Branyas possessed various variations of genes that helped her age healthily. Some of those that the research team identified included a gene associated with immune function and cognitive retention, a gene that influences how efficiently the body metabolizes fats, and another gene associated with aging brain health and heart disease.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThe level of detail in this paper is extraordinary,\u201d Steves told CNN.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThey have gone very deep and managed to assess a wide range of different biological aging mechanisms \u2026 To my note, this is the first paper that\u2019s every really done this in this detail,\u201d she said, adding that future studies should see whether the findings are replicated in other supercentenarians.\n <\/p>\n

\n Steves, like the researchers themselves, cautioned against drawing broad conclusions from this study, which focuses on just one person, since the aging process is different for everyone.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cWhen you\u2019re only looking at one person, you can\u2019t be sure whether or not what you\u2019re seeing is because of just fluke, you can\u2019t be sure that the relationship is really clear,\u201d Steves said, though she added that focusing on one person can still offer some insights.\n <\/p>\n

\n For example, by examining Branyas\u2019 genome, the research team were able to illustrate that \u201cextremely advanced age and poor health are not intrinsically linked,\u201d as they said in their study.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cIll-health in age is not inevitable. It comes about because of biological mechanisms \u2026 it\u2019s something we can change,\u201d said Steves, adding that the paper shows \u201cit\u2019s not going to be one single bullet, it\u2019s got to be multiple different pathways.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n And by identifying the genes and proteins involved in healthy aging, Esteller hopes researchers can guide the development of drugs that can target these specific elements.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cOur aim should not necessarily be to all live to 117,\u201d Steves added. \u201cWhat we want to do is to try and squash the time when we\u2019re unwell and suffering to as small as possible. And that\u2019s what this lady seems to have done, as well as living to a long time.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Get inspired by a weekly roundup on living well, made simple. Sign up for CNN\u2019s Life, But Better newsletter<\/a> for information and tools designed to improve your well-being.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When a supercentenarian, someone who is older than 110 years old, is interviewed, they are inevitably asked to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":179313,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[916,90,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-179312","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-genetics","tag-genetics","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179312","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=179312"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179312\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/179313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=179312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=179312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=179312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}