But Karpac says as the animals age, Foxo stops responding to insulin signaling (not a good thing for non-youngsters who crave that Halloween candy). "In the flies Foxo gets chronically turned on, which disrupts lipid metabolism. The process reflects the development of a general inflammatory condition in the aging gut."
"It has been proposed that our modern high-sugar/high fat diets can lead to misregulation of evolutionarily conserved dietary responses," said Buck Institute faculty Heinrich Jasper, PhD, lead scientist on the study. "That may be the case. Metabolism is a very complex process -- lots of things can go wrong which increases stress in the animals." Jasper says age-related loss of metabolic balance is a risk factor for many human pathologies. The goal is to identify age-related changes in metabolic pathways with the hope of being able to intervene. "Our aim is to develop treatments that would preserve well-functioning metabolism as part of healthy aging - something that would likely not ever include indulging in candy binges."
Source: Eurekalert