Bioactive Phytochemicals with Anti-Aging and Lifespan Extending Potentials in Caenorhabditis elegans

Abstract

In the forms of either herbs or functional foods, plants and their products have attracted medicinal, culinary, and nutraceutical applications due to their abundance in bioactive phytochemicals. Human beings and other animals have employed those bioactive phytochemicals to improve health quality based on their broad potentials as antioxidant, anti-microbial, anti-carcinogenic, anti-inflammatory, neuroprotective, and anti-aging effects, amongst others. For the past decade and half, efforts to discover bioactive phytochemicals both in pure and crude forms have been intensified using the Caenorhabditis elegans aging model, in which various metabolic pathways in humans are highly conserved. In this review, we summarized the aging and longevity pathways that are common to C. elegans and humans and collated some of the bioactive phytochemicals with health benefits and lifespan extending effects that have been studied in C. elegans. This simple animal model is not only a perfect system for discovering bioactive compounds but is also a research shortcut for elucidating the amelioration mechanisms of aging risk factors and associated diseases.

Curcumin supplementation increases longevity and antioxidant capacity in Caenorhabditis elegans

“…As the first fully sequenced multicellular eukaryote, C. elegans has a simple structure, moderate life cycle, and strong reproductive capacity. Due to its decline in motor capacity, reduced feeding intake, and free radical accumulation, it has been widely used in aging and longevity research ( Denzel, Lapierre, and Mack, 2019 ; Okoro et al, 2021 ). At present, the C. elegans model was widely used to screen and evaluate a variety of anti-aging compounds.…”

Naringin Alleviates Glucose-Induced Aging by Reducing Fat Accumulation and Promoting Autophagy in Caenorhabditis elegans

“…Phytochemicals could enhance autophagy-related genes and regulate fat storage and consumption. For example, shatavarin IV is a powerful therapeutic agent that can reduce fat accumulation and promote dietary restriction-induced autophagy mediated by pha-4 , a transcript factor and C. elegans orthologue of FOXA [ 46 ]. Resveratrol also possesses both autophagy-inducing and lipid-reducing activities [ 47 , 48 ].…”

Ganoderma lucidum methyl ganoderate E extends lifespan and modulates aging-related indicators in Caenorhabditis elegans

“…3 Numerous studies using model organisms such as Caenorhabditis elegans, Drosophila melanogaster and Mus musculus have shown the efficacy of bioactive compounds in extending lifespan through the regulation of longevity pathways. 4,5 C. elegans, in particular, serves as a well-established model organism for aging research due to its conserved aging-related features and pathways, with approximately twothirds of the human genome being conserved in this nematode. 6 Among the four most extensively studied aging pathways, namely the Insulin/IGF-1 (IIS), AMP-activating protein kinase (AMPK), mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR) and Sirtuin pathways, the IIS pathway is the most frequently implicated in the aging process.…”