Chinese zoologists reveal molecular landscape of aging monkeys

BEIJING -- A research team led by the Kunming Institute of Zoology (KIZ) under the Chinese Academy of Sciences has recently mapped a comprehensive landscape of natural aging in rhesus monkeys, covering all major organ systems across multiple molecular dimensions, the China Science Daily reported on Thursday.

Rhesus monkeys are highly valuable non-human primate research models due to their significant similarities to humans in terms of physiology, metabolism, and aging phenotypes.

In a previous study, KIZ researcher Kong Qingpeng led a team to discover that the aging process in rhesus monkeys has significant nonlinear characteristics, with a distinct acceleration turning point between 16 and 19 years of age, which is equivalent to between 48 and 57 years for humans.

This turning point aligns closely with key changes observed during human aging, further supporting the macaque as an ideal model for the study of human aging.

Kong's team worked with other researchers to conduct a study based on 17 female rhesus monkeys aged 3 to 27, collecting samples from 30 major organs, including the skin, multiple segments of the digestive tract, and organs related to the cardiovascular and immune systems. They measured and analyzed omics data across three molecular dimensions: transcriptomics, proteomics and metabolomics.

Their findings revealed that the aging process in rhesus monkeys occurs at different paces across different organs. Twelve organs age relatively quickly, including the thymus, spleen, gastrointestinal tract, kidneys and ovaries, while 11 organs age relatively slowly, including the brain, liver, skin and adrenal glands.

The study further identified key molecular characteristics underlying these differences in organ aging. In fast-aging organs, the translation efficiency of converting mRNA into proteins declines significantly with age, whereas it remains relatively stable in slow-aging organs.

This suggests that a decline in translation efficiency may serve as a crucial molecular basis for the varied paces of organ aging, offering new potential targets for future aging interventions.

All three categories of omics data have been made available to the public as an important resource for aging research, according to the study, which has been published in the Nature Methods journal.