Recent studies suggest that the steady rise in life expectancy observed over the past 200 years has now stagnated. Data indicate that a limit has been reached, and that medical and health care advances no longer affect longevity in developed countries as they did in previous decades.
Today, aging itself, rather than disease, is the real frontier of human longevity. But what exactly is aging? And can it be addressed in the same way as a disease?
A team led by Dr. Manel Esteller, Head of the Cancer Epigenetics group at the Josep Carreras Leukemia Research Institute, has published the final data from the study of the longest-lived person ever recorded, who far exceeded 117 years: the Catalan woman Maria Branyas.
The analysis, based on samples obtained using minimally invasive techniques, takes a multi-omic approach with genomic, proteomic, epigenomic, metabolomic and microbiomic technologies, and represents the most exhaustive study ever undertaken on a supercentenarian.
In the paper, published in Cell Reports Medicine, the international and multidisciplinary team coordinated by Dr. Esteller and led by Eloy Santos, explains that individuals who reach supercentenarian age do not do so through a general delay in aging but, as Esteller notes, thanks to a “fascinating duality: the simultaneous presence of signals of extreme aging and of healthy longevity.”
Although the team detected unmistakable signs of aging, such as very short telomeres (the ends of chromosomes), a pro-inflammatory immune system, and an aged population of B lymphocytes, Branyas also had genetic characteristics associated with neuroprotection and cardioprotection, genuinely low inflammatory levels, a microbiome dominated by beneficial bifidobacteria, and a biological age younger than her chronological age, as determined by epigenetic markers.
Since aging of the blood system is known to be closely linked to a higher incidence of incurable blood cancers such as leukemia and myelodysplastic syndromes, the insights gained from this supercentenarian study may also provide valuable clues for deepening our understanding of these hematological conditions and of the patients affected by them.
The absence of serious disease makes this the first study in which aging can be clearly distinguished from illness, offering a comprehensive view of the effects of aging on the human body and perhaps pointing to ways to counteract them.
Although it is still too early to link specific biological characteristics to specific habits, the researchers note that a healthy diet, a stimulating and diverse social network, and the absence of toxic habits are factors worth considering when explaining Mrs. Branyas’s exceptional longevity.
With this detailed perspective on extreme aging, researchers worldwide will be able to better understand this natural process and to propose strategies to address it specifically, in the same way that a disease would be treated.
In fact, epigenetic therapies and drugs specifically designed to combat senescence already exist in the field of oncology, aspects that are directly related to biological aging.
Who knows if, in the future, those same tools will be responsible for pushing life expectancy forward once again, after its current plateau.
More information:
The multiomics blueprint of the individual with the most extreme lifespan, Cell Reports Medicine (2025). DOI: 10.1016/j.xcrm.2025.102368 , linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S2666379125004410
The content is provided for information purposes only.