Fatty acid tryptamide from cacao elongates Drosophila melanogaster lifespan with sirtuin-dependent heat shock protein expression.

Life span is increasing in developed countries as Japan, and an aging society is becoming a problem. In fact, healthy lifespan is not extended, and it is desired to extend it by functional food. Cacao (Theobroma cacao) contains various active components and is considered a preventative agent against metabolic disease. In addition, it has long been thought that regular cacao intake extends a healthy lifespan. However, there is no direct evidence for this belief. The purpose of this study is to identify the cacao component that elongate the lifespan of D. melanogaster as a model organism and to elucidate its functional mechanism. The activation of sirtuins, a family of NAD+-dependent deacetylases, has been reported to extend the lifespans of various organisms. Heat shock factor 1 is known to be deacetylated by reaction with sirtuins, thereby inducing gene expression of various heat shock proteins by heat stress and effectively extending the lifespan of organisms. Therefore, we evaluated whether components in cacao activate sirtuins and extend the lifespan of D. melanogaster. In the process, we discovered the fatty acid tryptamide as a lifespan-elongating component of cacao. Therefore, we investigated whether the fatty acid tryptamide from cacao upregulates the genes of heat shock proteins. As a result, it was confirmed that the gene expression of multiple heat shock proteins was significantly increased. This suggests that fatty acid tryptamide may activate sirtuins, increase gene expression of heat shock proteins, and elongate the lifespan of D. melanogaster.

Comparison of fructooligosaccharide utilization by Lactobacillus and Bacteroides species.

The utilization of 1-kestose (GF(2)) and nystose (GF(3)), the main components of fructooligosaccharides (FOS), by Lactobacillus and Bacteroides species was examined. Of seven Lactobacillus and five Bacteroides strains that utilized FOS, L. salivarius, L. rhamnosus, L. casei, and L. gasseri utilized only GF(2), whereas L. acidophilus and all the Bacteroides strains utilized both GF(2) and GF(3). Only the strains able to utilize both GF(2) and GF(3) had ß-fructosidase activity in the culture supernatants. The culture supernatants of the Lactobacillus strains had higher ß-fructosidase activity for GF(2) than for GF(3), whereas those of the Bacteroides strains had higher activity for GF(3) than for GF(2). Furthermore, ß-fructosidase activity of the culture supernatants of the Lactobacillus cells grown in the GF(3) medium was much higher than that of the cells grown in the GF(2) medium, whereas the activity of the culture supernatants of the Bacteroides cells grown in the GF(3) medium was almost the same as that of the cells grown in the GF(2) medium. These results indicate that Lactobacillus species metabolize FOS in a different way from that of Bacteroides species.