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Phycoerythrin extends life span and health span of Caenorhabditis elegans

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Abstract

In the present study, we tested the antioxidant activity of phycoerythrin (PE, an oligomeric light harvesting protein isolated from Lyngbya sp. A09DM) to curtail aging effects in Caenorhabditis elegans. Purified PE (100 μg/ml) dietary supplement was given to C. elegans and investigated for its anti-aging potential. PE treatment improved the mean life span of wild type (N2)-animals from 15 ± 0.1 to 19.9 ± 0.3 days. PE treatment also moderated the decline in aging-associated physiological functions like pharyngeal pumping and locomotion with increasing age of N2 worms. Moreover, PE treatment also enhanced the stress tolerance in 5-day-aged adults with increase in mean survival rate from 22.2 ± 2.5 to 41.6 ± 2.5 % under thermo stress and from 30.1 ± 3.2 to 63.1 ± 6.4 % under oxidative (hydrogen peroxide)-stress. PE treatment was also noted to moderate the heat-induced expression of human amyloid-beta(Aβ1-42) peptide and associated paralysis in the muscle tissues of transgenic C. elegans CL4176 (Alzheimer’s disease model). Effectiveness of PE in expanding the life span of mutant C. elegans, knockout for some up (daf-2 and age-1)- and down (daf-16)-stream regulators of insulin/IGF-1 signaling (IIS), shows the independency of PE effect from DAF-2–AGE-1–DAF-16 signaling pathway. Moreover, the inability of PE in expanding the life span of hsf-1 knockout C. elegans(sy441) suggests the dependency of PE effect on heat shock transcription factor (HSF-1) controlling stress-induced gene expression. In conclusion, our results demonstrated a novel anti-aging activity of PE which conferred increased resistance to cellular stress resulting in improved life span and health span of C. elegans.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by the following funding agencies: (1) the Department of Science and Technology DST and (2) DBT-Patna University-IPLS Programme funded by the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Govt. of India. RRS gratefully acknowledges the Department of Science and Technology (DST), New Delhi for financial support in the form of INSPIRE fellowship.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. BRD School of Biosciences, Sardar Patel University, Vadtal Road, Satellite Campus, Post Box No- 39, Vallabh Vidyanagar, Gujarat, 388 120, India

    Ravi Raghav Sonani & Datta Madamwar

  2. Department of Biotechnology, Shri A. N. Patel PG Institute, Anand, Gujarat, 388 001, India

    Niraj Kumar Singh

  3. Department of Biological Sciences, Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, Rajasthan, 333 031, India

    Anjali Awasthi

  4. Department of Botany/Biotechnology, Patna University, Patna, Bihar, 800005, India

    Birendra Prasad & Jitendra Kumar

  5. The Buck Institute for Research on Aging, 8001 Redwood Boulevard, Novato, CA, 94945, USA

    Jitendra Kumar

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  1. Ravi Raghav Sonani
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  2. Niraj Kumar Singh
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  3. Anjali Awasthi
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  4. Birendra Prasad
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  5. Jitendra Kumar
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  6. Datta Madamwar
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Jitendra Kumar or Datta Madamwar.

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Ravi Raghav Sonani and Niraj Kumar Singh contributed equally to this work.

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Sonani, R.R., Singh, N.K., Awasthi, A. et al. Phycoerythrin extends life span and health span of Caenorhabditis elegans . AGE 36, 9717 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11357-014-9717-1

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