Taurine's Anti-Aging Potential: New Research Sparks Debate

Taurine has displayed some initial potential as an intervention for aging. Nevertheless, significantly more investigation is necessary to substantiate this purpose.(Image credit: Javier Zayas Photography via Getty Images)ShareShare by:

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Taurine — an amino acid present in certain edibles, as well as manufactured by the body — has been demonstrated to impede the aging process in creatures when provided as a dietary addition, proposing the concept that it may represent a encouraging therapy for humans. Yet presently, a fresh investigation has introduced ambiguities concerning taurine’s association with senescence.

The investigation, disseminated Thursday (June 5) in the journal Science, quantified taurine within the bloodstream of three cohorts of individuals spanning adulthood, alongside the bloodstream of mature primates and rodents. Select prior explorations indicated that circulating taurine diminishes with advancing years, potentially elucidating why taurine supplements ameliorate specific indicators of aging while prolonging lifespan — at minimum within laboratory fauna.

Nevertheless, these preceding explorations possessed shortcomings. As an illustration, the majority were “cross-sectional” — implying that as opposed to monitoring identical organisms across time, they scrutinized numerous organisms of differing ages at a solitary juncture. This methodology has yielded inconsistent outcomes, with disparate papers reporting either a downturn, surge, or constancy in taurine concentration with aging.

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To attain lucidity, the present investigation encompassed both cross-sectional and longitudinal information, the latter of which comprised blood specimens obtained at varying intervals from the identical cohorts of individuals and laboratory animals as they progressed in age. In essence, the researchers ascertained that taurine did not diminish with age; conversely, it augmented or remained constant across each of the cohorts examined.

Furthermore, the disparities in taurine amounts observed among individuals “generally are considerably larger” than the degree of alteration witnessed throughout adulthood, according to study co-author Maria Emilia Fernandez, a postdoctoral associate at the National Institute on Aging (NIA), as stated during a June 3 news briefing. Consequently, depleted taurine is “improbable to function as a dependable indicator of aging,” she conveyed.

“The fundamental conclusion is that a decline in taurine is not a ubiquitous trait of aging,” stated Joseph Baur, a professor of physiology at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, who held no involvement in the study.

In any case, the amino acid could nonetheless be entwined with certain age-associated alterations within the body, he articulated to Live Science through email, further mentioning that, “considering that prior studies have exhibited advantages, encompassing lifespan extension in rodents, I posit that the impetus endures to probe the capacity for taurine supplementation to bolster health.” However, the present investigation does not deliver a compelling argument either favoring or opposing the therapeutic worth of taurine supplements, he elucidated.

“There is a discrepancy”

The current investigation integrated information from beyond 740 participants within the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging, whose ages varied between 26 and 100 years. It similarly incorporated information from exceeding 70 individuals aged 20 to 85 who engaged in the Balearic Islands Study of Aging, executed in Mallorca, together with information from roughly 160 individuals aged 20 to 68 within the Predictive Medicine Research cohort situated in Atlanta. The team also dissected blood originating from rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) aged 3 to 32, alongside blood from laboratory mice aged 9 to 27 months, broadly encompassing the ages spanning reproductive maturity to advanced age and mortality.

Within the majority of these cohorts, “taurine exhibited an elevation with age,” Fernandez indicated. The singular exceptions were male rodents from one branch of the investigation, in conjunction with males from the Predictive Medicine Research cohort, both of which manifested consistent taurine concentrations over time. Scientists presently lack comprehension regarding the justification for the deviation of these two cohorts from the overarching pattern.

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The investigators additionally probed whether taurine concentrations exhibited any correlation with health indicators that fluctuate with age, such as muscular potency. Be that as it may, the linkages they detected were “inconsistent within and across cohorts,” thereby eroding the premise that depressed taurine concentrations instigate such age-linked transformations.

This facet of the investigation was not exhaustive, however. For instance, a 2023 investigation concerning taurine ascertained that administering supplemental taurine to middle-aged rodents was associated with enhanced glucose metabolism and reduced DNA impairment in the animals, although the present investigation did not scrutinize these supplementary dimensions of senescence.

Further complicating the depiction of taurine’s actions in wellness and malady, concentrations of the amino acid are recognized to diverge amidst individuals afflicted with varying medical ailments. By way of illustration, individuals experiencing adiposity manifest diminished taurine concentrations contrasted with individuals possessing attenuated weights, however, upon breaching the threshold into acute adiposity, an escalation of taurine is witnessed, as per the observations of the investigation authors. In instances of neoplasm, taurine escalates in leukemia, but diminishes in mammary carcinoma, Fernandez appended during the news briefing.

And intrinsically, taurine undertakes manifold assignments within the robust body, functioning as a pivotal constituent of bile salts, which represent compounds synthesized by the liver that facilitate the body’s digestion of adipose. It also aids in amplifying the body’s reserves of antioxidants and constructing key proteins within mitochondria, the cellular power plants.

Accounting for the totality of this complexity, can taurine concentrations serve as a surrogate for any phenomenon?

“The succinct response is in the negative — it does not currently constitute a trustworthy indicator of any process,” remarked study co-author Rafael de Cabo, chief of the Translational Gerontology Branch at NIA, during the news briefing. “I hold the conviction that we necessitate delving into the fundamental mechanisms … ahead of its reliable deployment as a marker.”

Nonetheless, granting the existence of extant studies that propose taurine engages in a specific capacity within aging, scientists persist in perceiving worth in its ongoing scrutiny. Vijay Yadav, an associate professor at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School who co-authored the 2023 taurine study, is engaged in an active clinical trial to assess whether daily taurine supplements exert any influence on aging in middle-aged humans.

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“This trial, we anticipate, will yield sufficiently rigorous data to demonstrate — or negate — whether supplementation decelerates the tempo of aging in humans [or] augments health and fitness,” he conveyed during the news briefing. Presently, however, Yadav asserted that clinical substantiation remains inadequate to advocate for taurine consumption for anti-aging objectives, and the authors of the present investigation concurred.

Dr. Luigi Ferrucci, a co-author of the current investigation and scientific director at the NIA, conveyed his belief that further scrutiny of taurine’s function in aging could uncover promising novel avenues for intervention, notwithstanding that these may not ultimately involve taurine supplements.

“There is a discrepancy between different studies, and this discrepancy needs to be analyzed more in depth,” Ferrucci said at the news conference. “They may reveal some important mechanisms with aging that could be … a target for intervention.”

Disclaimer

This article is for informational purposes only and is not meant to offer medical advice.

Nicoletta LaneseSocial Links NavigationChannel Editor, Health

Nicoletta Lanese serves as the health channel editor at Live Science and formerly held the positions of news editor and staff writer at the site. She holds a graduate certificate in science communication from UC Santa Cruz and degrees in neuroscience and dance from the University of Florida. Her work has been featured in The Scientist, Science News, the Mercury News, Mongabay, and Stanford Medicine Magazine, among other publications. Based in NYC, she also maintains substantial involvement in dance and participates in the performances of local choreographers’ work.

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