Anti-aging effects of dietary phytochemicals: From Caenorhabditis elegans, Drosophila melanogaster, rodents to clinical studies

Abstract

Anti-aging research has become critical since the elderly population is increasing dramatically in this era. With the establishment of frailty phenotype and frailty index, the importance of anti-frailty research is concurrently enlightened. The application of natural phytochemicals against aging or frailty is always intriguing, and abundant related studies have been published. Various models are designed for biological research, and each model has its strength and weakness in deciphering the complex aging mechanisms. In this article, we attempt to show the potential of Caenorhabditis elegans in the study of phytochemicals’ effects on anti-aging by comparing it to other animal models. In this review, the lifespan extension and anti-aging effects are demonstrated by various physical, cellular, or molecular biomarkers of dietary phytochemicals, including resveratrol, curcumin, urolithin A, sesamin, fisetin, quercetin, epigallocatechin-3-gallate, epicatechin, spermidine, sulforaphane, along with extracts of broccoli, cocoa, and blueberry. Meanwhile, the frequency of phytochemicals and models studied or presented in publications since 2010 were analyzed, and the most commonly mentioned animal models were rats, mice, and the nematode C. elegans. This up-to-date summary of the anti-aging effect of certain phytochemicals has demonstrated powerful potential for anti-aging or anti-frailty in the human population.

GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT

Keywords:

• Aging
• animal model
• frailty
• lifespan extension
• phytochemicals
• sarcopenia

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

This work was financially supported by the “National Taiwan University Higher Education Sprout Project (NTU-CC-110L893104, NTU-CC-111L892504, and NTU-CC-112L891404)” within the framework of the Higher Education Sprout Project by the Ministry of Education (MOE) in Taiwan.