How Dolphins May be Able to Help Us Live Longer

 by Estella S-C

Scientists are using dolphins to answer the age-old question: is it possible to stop the clock on ageing? The CEO and co-founder of Epitracker, Stephanie Venn-Watson, lead a study highlighting some of the potential advancements in the field of ageing science by using US Navy dolphins. According to Venn-Watson, studying how similar diseases present in various animals will be crucial to our understanding of how to enhance global health. The concept may also have implications for future developments in human medicine, including the creation of treatments that could slow down the ageing process.

The US Navy dolphins were selected as the subject of the long-term ageing study. As aquatic mammals, they age similarly to humans and they also live in a very uniform environment in terms of diet and habitat. Dolphins are also particularly helpful as models of human ageing since they are susceptible to several ageing-related diseases, including Alzheimer's disease, high cholesterol, and chronic inflammation. "These similarities support that dolphins and humans share similar ageing-related mechanisms," Venn-Watson says.

In her dolphin study, she noticed that some older Navy dolphins were getting age-related problems while others were not, even though the dolphins were all living in the same conditions. For instance, they discovered that about one in three dolphins experienced fatty liver disease; incidentally, this ratio also exists in human beings. They compared the two groups of healthy and unhealthy ageing dolphins with one another using metabolomic research to examine the hundreds of molecules in an organism's body to determine how they function. The study found 100 distinct chemicals that could predict the healthiest dolphins; C15:0 was the most successful.

C15:0 or pentadecanoic acid is an odd-chain saturated fatty acid that has been shown in studies to have a number of direct effects, including reducing inflammation, fibrosis, cholesterol and glucose and easing anaemia and liver disease in the lab. Fatty acids are essential in each cell in the body, mainly because they are a main factor of a lipid bilayer membrane. This is a layer of flat lipid molecules that surrounds cells, providing both protection and a channel for ions to enter and exit the cell. The stability of cellular membranes, intracellular signalling, and the activation of brain receptors that control mood, immunity, metabolism, and sleep are all dependent on fatty acids. As with most fatty acids, C15:0 is obtained by diet. Dolphins in the wild naturally obtain this fatty acid from the skin and heads of fish and humans obtain it from food such as whole-fat cow's milk and butter. But because of our changing diets, both people and the dolphins of the Navy have developed a C15:0 deficiency. The dolphins who were less healthy as they aged improved when the researchers fed them a diet richer in fish-based C15:0.

Numerous investigations were carried out by Venn-Watson's group to support the theory that C15:0 is a healthy fatty acid for people. 8 separate peer-reviewed studies came to the following conclusions: C15:0 exhibited significant liver-protective benefits, protecting cell membranes from damage; there is a dose-dependent relationship between C15:0 and anti-inflammatory and antifibrotic properties; the administration of daily oral C15:0 treatment effectively halted the progression of severe liver fibrosis. Another advantage of C15:0 is that it strengthens the cell membranes, resulting in an 80% increase in cellular stability. Multiple studies have demonstrated that a person's physiological state and mortality rate are both worse when their blood concentrations and dietary intake of C15:0 are lower.

Because of this study, scientists can now prove that dolphins mature both quickly and slowly. That may someday aid scientists in their efforts to slow down and target human ageing. All things considered, C15:0 may be significant for reducing the dangers associated with ageing in humans; supplementing with it appears to be most efficient. Therefore, Venn-Watson and her colleagues have developed a supplement known as Fatty15. There is simply C15:0 in this product.