You can tweak my enzyme any time

Alexandra Ossola writes in Popular Science,

From the second we’re born, our cells are given their marching orders for how to grow, mature, and maintain our bodies. But at a certain point, the repairs become faulty, and we age and eventually die. Now a team of Korean researchers has found a way to modify a particular type of enzyme in roundworms to double their lifespan—and they suspect the same mechanisms might work in humans.

When the researchers suppressed one particular helicase, HEL-1, as well as a gene called daf-2, the mutated roundworms were not only more immune to environmental stresses of heat, cold and pathogenic bacteria, but also their lifespans were double that of wild roundworms.

...HEL-1 is found in many different types of organisms, including mammals—even humans. And while it’s not clear that helicases play the same role in human longevity, some evidence suggest that it could be. That could be particularly useful in treating neurological diseases that become more common with age like Alzheimer’s. But ultimately researchers hope that this work could lead to new ways to increase human longevity.

Read more here.