The gene patterns predicts who'll live oldest

Several researchers have found gene patterns that predict with more precision than ever before who might live to be 100 years old or older - even though they have other genes associated with disease.

Their findings , published in the journal Science published Friday ( 2 / 7 ) , offers the tantalizing possibility of prophecy who can expect to live longer . The find also raises doubts about the accuracy of the experiment which is now marketed and offered to predict a person's risk of chronic diseases such as Alzheimer ` s.

Several teams of researchers have identified gene patterns associated with very old age . But the researchers led by Paola Sebastiani and Dr . Thomas Perls at Boston Unversity say their findings provide the best accuracy .

They studied more than 1,000 people who live to age 100 years or more and matching them with another 1,200 people to identify genetic patterns that were more common in people aged 100 years . They use an approach called genome - wide association studies .

What surprised them was the longest living person who has a lot of the same genes associated with the disease as others .

Genes old age they seem to cancel all the effects of the disease gene .

" Many people might ask , ` Well , who wants to live to age 100 years `, because they think they have any age-related diseases under the sun and the sting sinat on the verge of death , and of course suffer from Alzheimer ` s. But This was not true , "said Perls told reporters in a briefing by telephone , as quoted by Reuters Health and Science editor , Maggie Fox.

" We have stated in previous work that 90 percent of people aged 100 years free from defects in age , on average , 93 years old . We have long argued that to reach the age of 100 years, people have to have relatively fewer variants associated with disease. But in this case , we found that's not the case. "

They identified 19 patterns among 150 genes and said the pattern was predicted with 77 percent accuracy who will be in very old age group .

" Some signs associated with the longest survival , another sign of age-related long-delayed on the occurrence of most age-related diseases such as dementia or heart and blood vessel disease or high blood pressure , "said Sebastiani .

The researchers emphasize that having the gene does not seem to give someone a free ticket for smoking , drinking alcohol and overeating.

The Boston researchers said they had no plans to market the results of an experiment for the longevity gene that and are working on the design of a free network where people who have DNA sequences can check and see if they have the gene .

" The methodology we developed can be applied to the special features of a complex of other genes , including Alzheimer ` s disease , Parkinson's , heart and blood vessel disease and diabetes , "said Sebastiani .

Currently, one in 6000 people lived to age 100 years and 1 in 7 million to reach 110 years of age . The researchers said the belief that certain people in places like Russia or Azerbaijan are more likely to reach age 100 years have proven to be incorrect .

Perls said he did not see the findings that lead to youth drug , but hoped the drug might be used to help delay the emergence of age-related diseases such as Alzheimer ` s.