This is what you need to live to 100: DNA study

Scientists may have found the key to living to 100 and beyond.

Only 0.27% of Americans were 100 or older in 2021, but the rate of people in the US becoming centenarians has nearly doubled in the last 20 years, according to data from the United Nations.

As more people reach this milestone, researchers at Boston University and Tufts Medical Center analyzed the DNA and lifestyles of seven centenarians to seek the fountain of youth.

The scientists studied their peripheral blood mononuclear cells — a broad category of immune cells found in the blood — and determined these centenarians have highly functional immune systems that successfully fought off and recovered from many ailments. The study was published last week in the journal eBioMedicine.

“We assembled and analyzed what is, to our knowledge, the largest single-cell dataset of centenarian subjects that allowed us to define unique features of this population,” senior author Stefano Monti, a Boston University associate professor of medicine, explained in a statement.

A person’s ability to adapt and respond to new infections usually declines with age, as their immune system weakens. This study found the centenarian subjects have a distinct composition of immune cells.

“The immune profiles that we observed in the centenarians confirms a long history of exposure to infections and capacity to recover from them and provide support to the hypothesis that centenarians are enriched for protective factors that increase their ability to recover from infections,” said senior author Paola Sebastiani, director of Tufts’ Center for Quantitative Methods and Data Science.

Their findings show the proportion of lymphocytes (a type of white blood cell) in the PBMCs of centenarians decreases compared to younger people, but a significant change in composition also occurs.

The researchers also noted changes in myeloid cells, which originate in bone marrow.

“Centenarians, and their exceptional longevity, provide a ‘blueprint’ for how we might live more productive, healthful lives. We hope to continue to learn everything we can about resilience against disease and the extension of one’s health span,” said senior author George J. Murphy, a Boston University associate professor of medicine.

While some scientists research natural longevity, others are turning to advanced technology to identify ways to extend lives.

Futurist Ray Kurzweil has claimed that humans will achieve immortality by 2030.

The 75-year-old computer scientist and former Google engineer made this shocking prediction — and many others — in recent years.

Kurzweil, a National Medal of Technology recipient and National Inventors Hall of Fame inductee, believes microscopic robots will fix damaged cells and tissues to fend off aging and illness.