How fruit flies can add 20 years to your life

Summary of Biologists delay the aging process by ‘remote control’ by Andrea Estrada

Estrada wrote that a study was conducted at University of California- Los Angeles to make people live longer and healthier and without aging diseases. The experiment was preformed on 100,000 fruit flies, which have high levels of AMPK, a gene that senses when energy is low in cells. Scientists increased the amount of AMPK in the fly’s intestines because they are easier to reach than organs like the brain, but it still slowed aging in the fly’s whole body.  The fruit fly’s life spans went from 6 weeks to 8 weeks. The problem is there are not high levels of this gene in humans. In humans, AMPH causes higher levels of Autophagy in the brain. Autophagy is when cells get rid of dead cells, preventing the dead cells from damaging healthy cells. This slows aging in humans, but because of the low level of AMPK in humans the scientists continued searching for a solution. Finally, they found a way to activate Autophagy in humans with out activating AMPK. This discovery could lead to slowing the formation of diseases like diabetes, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, Cancer, Strokes, Cardiovascular diseases and many more (Estrada, 2014).

This discovery is a huge step for science and medicine, and could potentially save the lives of thousands of people. A fruit fly’s lifespan was raised from six to eight weeks, so a human’s lifespan, which is 80 years on average, could be lengthened up to 25 years. I hope scientists continue to perfect the method of only activating Autophagy, so maybe someday my dad’s type one diabetes can be cured. Then, people like my dad with terminal illnesses can live longer, healthier, and happier lives. These fruit flies are so small, but the discovery that was made by them will make a huge impact on medicine all over the world

University of California - Los Angeles. (2014, September 8). Biologists delay

     the aging process by 'remote control'. ScienceDaily. Retrieved September 9,

     2014 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/09/140908152928.htm