Chinese zoologists reveal molecular landscape of aging monkeys

A research team led by the Kunming Institute of Zoology (KIZ) under the Chinese Academy of Sciences recently mapped a comprehensive landscape of natural aging in rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta), covering all major organ systems across various molecular levels.

Rhesus macaques are highly valuable non-human primate research models due to their significant similarities to humans in physiology, metabolism, and aging traits.

In a previous study, KIZ researcher Kong Qingpeng led a team that discovered that the aging process in rhesus macaques exhibits significant nonlinear traits, with a clear acceleration point between 16 and 19 years old, corresponding to about 48 to 57 years in humans.

This turning point closely matches key changes seen during human aging, further supporting the macaque as a perfect model for studying human aging.

Kong's team worked with other researchers to conduct a study involving 17 female rhesus macaques aged 3 to 27 years. They collected samples from 30 major organs, including the skin, various segments of the digestive tract, and organs related to the cardiovascular and immune systems. They analyzed omics data across three molecular levels: transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics. Omics involves the comprehensive characterization and measurement of entire sets of biological molecules and the study of how they influence the structure, function, and dynamics of an organism or group of organisms.

Their findings revealed that aging in rhesus macaques occurs at different rates across organs. Twelve organs age relatively quickly, including the thymus, spleen, gastrointestinal tract, kidneys and ovaries, while 11 organs age relatively slowly, including the brain, liver, skin and adrenal glands.

The study also identified key molecular features that drive these differences in organ aging. In fast-aging organs, the efficiency of translating mRNA into proteins drops significantly with age, while it stays relatively stable in slow-aging organs.

This indicates that a decrease in translation efficiency could be a key molecular foundation for the different rates of organ aging, providing new possible targets for future aging interventions.

All three categories of omics data have been made publicly available as an important resource for aging research, according to the study published in the journal Nature Methods.