As the healthy aging category continues to gain popularity, so does microbiome modulation as more and more science suggests that healthy aging may be rooted in the gut.
So where do prebiotics, probiotics and postbiotics fit into the equation? And what is the status of fecal transplants? A panel of experts converged on the IPA World Congress + Probiota stage in Copenhagen to discuss just that.
Bruno Balen, founder of Ani Biome; Sean Gibbons, PhD, associate professor at the Institute for Systems Biology (ISB); Patrick Guye, PhD, co-founder and CEO at Trilliome; Caitlin Hall, PhD, head of research at myota, made up the panel, “In Search of the Fountain of Youth: Is it Microbial?”
Dr. Hall kicked off the discussion, highlighting the importance of the gut microbiome and inflammation in the field of longevity research.
“We’re probably one of the few in the prebiotic space here at Probiota, so I’m here to represent all of the prebiotic fibers in the room.”
Healthspan is life
Hall highlighted how myota is taking a unique approach by developing a prebiotic fiber blend that accounts for individual differences in how people ferment different fibers. This blend aims to improve healthspan by addressing inflammatory markers, glycemic control and cognitive function, rather than just focusing on extending lifespan.
Myota is already commercializing this prebiotic blend, including offering it as an ingredient in functional food products like bread rolls for older adults to help address mild cognitive impairment.
“Prebiotics will not let you live until 150 years old, but how can we...improve our health span rather than our lifespan? So that’s our approach, let’s live the healthiest that we can for as long as we can,” Hall said.
Keeping with the theme of improving healthspan, Dr. Patrick Guye discussed his work at Trillium, explaining that while life expectancy has increased by 20 years over the past 60 years, the proportion of healthy days has not changed much.
“So about 50% of your life is spent in good health, about 34% to 35% in moderate health, [...], but 14% to 15% is really in bad health,” Guye said. “And securing this ratio means that you have more time, more good ways of good health. This is one of the approaches we really want to pioneer.”
To do this, Trillium is developing supplements that precisely modulate the gut and skin microbiomes, aiming to boost beneficial microbes associated with brain protection and reduced inflammation.
Is a younger microbiome a better microbiome?
The panel also explored the nuances around introducing a younger microbiome into older individuals, noting that some aspects of aging may have compensatory benefits and that a simplistic “youth is better” approach may not always apply. The panelists discussed the potential benefits and risks of using fecal transplants or selective microbiome restoration as a way to combat the effects of aging.
As Dr. Sean Gibbons pointed out, microbiome composition is highly context-dependent and can change significantly throughout one’s life.
“As we age, the risks of chronic diseases are rising as well, but some people escape those diseases, and so some of those processes of aging may not be bad,” he said. “Some of them are potentially good, and we see this in the gut. Obviously, we think we see this association in the gut. So I would caution against banking your 20-year-old poo and putting it in yourself at 80. In fact, my old boss, [MIT Professor] Eric Alm, ran a poop bank a while back for C. diff infections, and he would caution against even a 20-year-old putting it into their 25-year-old self, because we carry a lot of opportunistic pathogens in our guts, which are suppressed by the commensal ecology of our system.
“Let’s say we get a big course of antibiotics, or we’re getting a stem cell transplant, and become very immunocompromised. Well, the pathogens that were in our gut a couple years ago could kill us if we transport them for years down the road, and so having these sterling stool donors who have been screened for all known pathogens is probably a better approach.”
Dr. Gibbons added that with age, we lose things like Bifidobacterium and lactose, which produce insulin and have been associated with anti-aging effects.
“If we selectively promote some of these health-associated bugs that are declining with age for whatever reason, that could be maybe a better thing than just the sledgehammer of fecal transplant,” Dr. Gibbons said.
Dr. Hall was quick to point out that the idea of reintroducing a 20-year-old woman’s stool to a middle-aged woman is especially complicated.
“That wouldn’t necessarily be the best approach because women have very distinct phases of their microbiome that are coupled with perimenopause and post-menopause, putting your premenopausal microbiome into your post-menopausal body for so many reasons, would be potentially ineffective, and we just don’t necessarily know if that would be beneficial or not right now,” she said.
“Why would we think just feces? What is inside? What is this feces doing? If we don’t know that, it’s guesswork,” Bruno Balen added.
“But we can actually do metabolomics on the stool. We can see what’s inside. We can see the reaction, and maybe my 20-year-old self... would benefit from 80-year-old self or 80-year-old you in terms of what the signal I want to introduce is, what is the biological effect that I’m doing here, and where do I want to deliver it.”
He added that once there is a better understanding, a more precise approach can be taken.
“Because once we understand it…we are doing it with our perfect 20-year-old self that actually never existed," he said. “We have an in silico projection of our best self, and then we are feeding it. Because of my 20-year-old self, I’m better off now. Because back then, I was eating kebabs and drinking alcohol like all the people of 22, but I don’t now, so I don’t want that. I just want what is relevant in biological context.”
