Plasma methionine metabolic profile is associated with longevity in mammals

Abstract

Methionine metabolism arises as a key target to elucidate the molecular adaptations underlying animal longevity due to the negative association between longevity and methionine content. The present study follows a comparative approach to analyse plasma methionine metabolic profile using a LC-MS/MS platform from 11 mammalian species with a longevity ranging from 3.5 to 120 years. Our findings demonstrate the existence of a species-specific plasma profile for methionine metabolism associated with longevity characterised by: i) reduced methionine, cystathionine and choline; ii) increased non-polar amino acids; iii) reduced succinate and malate; and iv) increased carnitine. Our results support the existence of plasma longevity features that might respond to an optimised energetic metabolism and intracellular structures found in long-lived species.

This work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities (RTI2018-099200-B-I00), and the Generalitat of Catalonia (Agency for Management of University and Research Grants (2017SGR696) and Department of Health (SLT002/16/00250)) to R.P. This study has been co-financed by FEDER funds from the European Union (“A way to build Europe”). IRBLleida is a CERCA Programme/Generalitat of Catalonia. M.J. is a ‘Serra Hunter’ Fellow. N.M.M. received a predoctoral fellowship from the Generalitat of Catalonia (AGAUR, ref 2018FI_B2_00104).