Dolphins are awesome.
(here’s why)

Healthy Aging

Dolphins & humans share the same healthy aging secrets

While mice, worms and flies are often used to try and decode aging, we here at fatty15 think about aging differently. Namely, we are looking for answers to the following two questions:

How did humans, dolphins, elephants and other long-lived mammals evolve to live longer than mice, worms, and flies in the first place? And could nature’s secrets to longevity be leveraged to help us live even longer and healthier?

This series of Science Says covers our fellow long-lived mammals, including how improving their long-term health may just help us, too. This week, as our last Science Says of 2022, let’s (of course) talk about our favorite big-brained mammal: bottlenose dolphins.

I love dolphins! But do they really age similarly to people?

Yes! Dolphins are long-lived, large-brained mammals that develop aging-associated conditions just like us, including:

• Chronic inflammation. As dolphins get older, they are more likely to develop mild, systemic inflammation. This chronic inflammatory state is also a primary contributor to the process of aging in humans.
• Metabolic syndrome. Older dolphins can develop metabolic syndrome, which is a cluster of conditions, such as elevated insulin, elevated glucose, and elevated cholesterol. 1 in 3 humans also has metabolic syndrome, which increases our risk of developing type 2 diabetes, heart disease and stroke.
• Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). About 1 in 3 humans has NAFLD, which is a metabolic liver condition that is becoming the leading cause of liver cancer and liver transplants globally. When NAFLD was first identified in dolphins, this was a bit of a shocker to physicians, who had originally hypothesized that NAFLD was driven by dietary sugars. Since dolphins don’t imbibe in carbohydrates, the question was – what causes NAFLD in dolphins?
• Alzheimer’s disease. When studying the brains of wild dolphins that had stranded and died along the shores, the University of Oxford discovered that some older dolphins had tissue changes in their brains that matched the pattern of Alzheimer’s disease in humans. It ends up, Alzheimer’s disease in older dolphins may be just as common as in humans.

Can you dive a little deeper into why older dolphins and humans have so many parallels? Pun intended.

Glad you asked. Dolphins are part of the artiodactyla clade that evolved alongside cows, camels, and hippos. Their ancestors were land-dwelling mammals that decided to move back into the water about 53 million years ago. Despite these evolutionary differences from humans, there are several important and surprising similarities that help explain why older dolphins and humans age similarly, too.

• We share large brains. When using the encephalization quotient (or EQ), which is the ratio of brain size to body size, humans get top billing. Of ALL other mammals – including primates – guess which species gets second place? That’s right… bottlenose dolphins.
• We have super efficient glucose transport systems. It was once believed that only us primates had red blood cells that could rapidly transport glucose throughout our bodies, especially to our brains. Until it was discovered that cetaceans, including bottlenose dolphins, could do the same. Have a big brain? You’ll need a way to get glucose to support all those deep thoughts.
• We have twin chromosomes. Of our 23 chromosomes, Chromosome 1 is the largest. It includes genes that are relevant to our overall health and longevity. Among all mammals, there are very (very) few mammals that share not only the same genes within human Chromosome 1, but also the same order of genes: great apes, the 2-toed sloth, and bottlenose dolphins. Humans and dolphins also have remarkably similar microRNA, too.

These unexpected parallels between humans and dolphins explain why we age alike. Shared big brains, shared glucose metabolism, shared chromosomes and more all tally up to common drivers of our health, our aging, and our longevity.

Got it, we’re practically dolphins. But how can knowing that actually help dolphins and humans live healthier & longer?

Well, science. Fancy science! Since dolphins tend to be much more consistent with their health regimen (they go swimming every day, eat only fish, and have incredible social lives), helping older Navy dolphins live healthier is providing important insights for us, too. Here’s where the science comes in:

• Step 1: Find healthy aging molecules. Despite their healthy habits, some dolphins still age better than other dolphins. Using archived serum samples, we use metabolomics to study thousands of small molecules present in both humans and dolphins to understand which molecules are associated with the healthiest aging dolphins.
• Step 2: Screen molecules for healthy-aging activities. We then use human cell-based systems that mimic aging-related conditions to test these molecules for safety and direct activities, including lowering pro-inflammatory cytokines, decreasing proliferation of harmful cells, and repairing mitochondrial function. We also test these molecules’ ability to activate receptors that are known to support healthy aging.
• Step 3: Develop products that replenish our healthy-aging molecules and support our long-term health. While we are discovering new essential nutrients that support our overall health and wellness, we are also finding molecules that may specifically prevent and treat chronic inflammation, metabolic syndrome, NASH, and Alzheimer’s disease. For humans… and dolphins. 🐬❤️