The Anti-Aging and Longevity Benefits of Trehalose

Summary

Trehalose is a naturally occurring sugar found in various foods such as mushrooms, seaweed, and yeast.
Trehalose is broken down by the enzyme, trehalase, found in the intestinal villi (finger-like projections), kidney brush border, liver, and blood.
Trehalose displays antioxidant properties by activating components that combat oxidative stress in cells.
Trehalose promotes autophagy.

Trehalose can reduce inflammaging.
Trehalose can reduce the accumulation of proteins, which is toxic to cells and is a hallmark of aging (loss of proteostasis).
Trehalose may reduce arterial stiffness that occurs with aging.
Trehalose supports healthy aging in the brain, liver, and kidney in older adults.

Trehalose Impacts Aging Via:

The Role of Trehalose in Aging and Longevity:

Trehalose is a naturally occurring sugar that consists of two molecules of glucose, also known as a non-reducing disaccharide. It is commonly found in foods such as mushrooms, seaweed, and yeast. Some bacteria, fungi, plants, and invertebrate animals use trehalose as a storage carbohydrate much like a glycogen store in humans.

Trehalose versus sucrose:

Sucrose is another common naturally-occurring disaccharide found in fruits, vegetables, and nuts. It is also the main constituent of white sugar.

Sucrose is made of one molecule of fructose and one molecule of glucose. Studies have also shown that when taken as a dietary sugar, trehalose demonstrated benefits over sucrose in maintaining the balance of glucose level in the blood. In a recent study on healthy people, consumption of trehalose resulted in significantly lower blood glucose level compared to sucrose consumption after a meal. (Yoshizane, et.al., 2020)

Trehalose and aging:

Trehalose has garnered much interest as an anti-aging ingredient because of its antioxidant properties and ability to restore autophagy processes in cells.

Research has revealed that trehalose supplementation promotes autophagy, which is disabled in cells of an aging body, by activating proteins and pathways that are related to autophagy. (Castillo et. al., 2013, Lotfi et. al., 2018, McCarthy et. al., 2019, Pan et. al., 2022)

Trehalose also functions as an antioxidant by activating a cellular pathway known as, p62-Keap1/Nrf2 pathway, which plays a protective role in cells by responding against oxidative stress. Additionally, the same study also revealed that supplementation with trehalose reduced the amount of reactive oxygen species, which are responsible for oxidative stress during aging when in high amounts. (Mizunoe et. al., 2018)

The Impact of Trehalose on Health

Aging affects all organ systems in the body, causing vital organ functions to decline slowly. However, research has shown that trehalose has protective effects on the functioning of the brain, liver, and kidneys of older adults, by restoring the cellular processes that maintain the balance of proteins, prevent oxidative stress, and ensure metabolic function.

Trehalose and brain health

As people age, the brain naturally changes in size, blood flow, and function, affecting memory, learning, and other cognitive functions.

Research has shown that the consumption of trehalose presents protective benefits for our brain health during the natural aging process by delaying brain aging and boosting cognitive functions like learning and memory. (Sun et. al., 2020)

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is an age-related neurodegenerative disease. Researchers discovered that trehalose may support brain health by facilitating the removal of protein clumps in the brain – one of the hallmarks of AD – through autophagy. (Krüger et. al., 2012, Pan et. al., 2022)

Scientists also discovered that trehalose promotes brain health during aging by delaying age-related cognitive decline in a similar manner induced by exercise by regulating the proteins related to autophagy. (Pan et. al., 2022)

Research has also suggested that trehalose possess antioxidant properties by protecting cells against oxidative stress.

In a recent study, researchers demonstrated the anti-aging role of trehalose by activating the genes related to the Nrf2 pathway, which is a key driver in the body’s antioxidant system, to prevent oxidative stress. This same study also found that consuming trehalose once a day for 8 weeks helped to boost cognitive function as demonstrated by a significant improvement in learning and memory impairment. (Sun et. al., 2020)

Scientists also discovered that trehalose supplementation daily for 30 days supports brain health by restoring antioxidant systems in cells and reducing inflammation in the brain through increasing the production of sirtuins like SIRT1 in cells and activation of microRNA, a class of non-coding RNA, which is related to producing SIRT1. (Shafiei et. al., 2023) SIRT1 is involved in regulating inflammatory responses in the body.

Trehalose and kidney health

Kidney function gradually declines as a person ages which can lead to kidney disease. Increase in oxidative stress during the aging process will cause damage to organs like the kidney, exacerbating the development of age-related kidney diseases.

Trehalose displays beneficial antioxidant effects which helps to maintain kidney health as you age. A recent study revealed that daily trehalose supplementation over one month reduces the damage of antioxidant systems in the kidney caused by aging by increasing the activity of proteins that prevent oxidative stress in cells. (Hozhabri et. al., 2022)

The antioxidant effect of trehalose supplementation was also demonstrated in another study which found that when consumed daily over one month helped to boost kidney health in older study subjects. The researchers of this study discovered that trehalose supports healthy kidneys during aging by reducing the level of oxidative stress and inflammation through a sirtuin protein known as SIRT1, which is normally involved in regulating inflammation, repairing DNA damage and improving metabolic function. (Bahri et. al., 2021)

Trehalose and liver health

Aging is associated with an increased risk of age-related liver diseases such as, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease due to changes in the metabolic functions of the liver.

Trehalose supplementation taken daily for one month helped to maintain liver health by increasing the cellular components related to metabolism to prevent fat formation in the liver which could provide an effective way to delay the progression of age-related decline of liver function. (Naiini et. al., 2023)

Aside from preventing fat accumulation in the liver, trehalose supplementation for four weeks promotes liver health by suppressing inflammatory signals and maintaining the balance of cellular proteins in the liver. (Pagliassotti et. al., 2017)

Trehalose and cardiovascular health

Arterial stiffness occurs with aging and is associated with the progression to more serious and life-threatening cardiovascular diseases.

Trehalose when taken orally every day for 12 weeks by middle-aged and older adults demonstrated benefits towards cardiovascular health. The trehalose supplementation helped to improve the resistance artery function – a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Scientists postulate that this could be due to an increase in the amount of and response to nitric oxide, a blood vessel dilator that helps to reduce blood pressure. (Kaplon et. al., 2016)

Other studies also support this by showing that trehalose supplementation decreased arterial stiffness through restoring autophagy in study subjects with high blood pressure (hypertension). (McCarthy et al., 2019)

NOVOS VITAL & Trehalose

NOVOS Vital contains 4 grams of this powerful ingredient, trehalose, along with six other scientifically researched ingredients that target vital organ health. Together, these ingredients work to optimize your brain, eyes, gut, kidneys, liver, muscles, and heart. NOVOS Vital is a low calorie and low sugar chew that provides a healthy alternative for a sweet treat.

Nicotinamide mononucleotide (NMN)

Apple Cider Vinegar

References:

Bahri, F., Khaksari, M., Movahedinia, S., Shafiei, B., Rajizadeh, M. A., & Nazari-Robati, M. (2021). Improving SIRT1 by trehalose supplementation reduces oxidative stress, inflammation, and histopathological scores in the kidney of aged rats. Journal of food biochemistry, 45(10), e13931. https://doi.org/10.1111/jfbc.13931

Castillo, K., Nassif, M., Valenzuela, V., Rojas, F., Matus, S., Mercado, G., Court, F. A., van Zundert, B., & Hetz, C. (2013). Trehalose delays the progression of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis by enhancing autophagy in motoneurons. Autophagy, 9(9), 1308–1320. https://doi.org/10.4161/auto.25188

Hozhabri, Y., Sadeghi, A., Nazari-Robati, M., Bahri, F., Salimi, F., Abolhassani, M., & Mohammadi, A. (2022). Effects of trehalose on NFE2L2, catalase, and superoxide dismutase in the kidney of aged rats. Molecular biology research communications, 11(1), 29–36. https://doi.org/10.22099/mbrc.2022.42014.1688

Kaplon, R. E., Hill, S. D., Bispham, N. Z., Santos-Parker, J. R., Nowlan, M. J., Snyder, L. L., Chonchol, M., LaRocca, T. J., McQueen, M. B., & Seals, D. R. (2016). Oral trehalose supplementation improves resistance artery endothelial function in healthy middle-aged and older adults. Aging, 8(6), 1167–1183. https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.100962

Krüger, U., Wang, Y., Kumar, S., & Mandelkow, E. M. (2012). Autophagic degradation of tau in primary neurons and its enhancement by trehalose. Neurobiology of aging, 33(10), 2291–2305. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2011.11.009

Lotfi, P., Tse, D. Y., Di Ronza, A., Seymour, M. L., Martano, G., Cooper, J. D., Pereira, F. A., Passafaro, M., Wu, S. M., & Sardiello, M. (2018). Trehalose reduces retinal degeneration, neuroinflammation and storage burden caused by a lysosomal hydrolase deficiency. Autophagy, 14(8), 1419–1434. https://doi.org/10.1080/15548627.2018.1474313

McCarthy, C. G., Wenceslau, C. F., Calmasini, F. B., Klee, N. S., Brands, M. W., Joe, B., & Webb, R. C. (2019). Reconstitution of autophagy ameliorates vascular function and arterial stiffening in spontaneously hypertensive rats. American journal of physiology. Heart and circulatory physiology, 317(5), H1013–H1027. https://doi.org/10.1152/ajpheart.00227.2019

Mizunoe, Y., Kobayashi, M., Sudo, Y., Watanabe, S., Yasukawa, H., Natori, D., Hoshino, A., Negishi, A., Okita, N., Komatsu, M., & Higami, Y. (2018). Trehalose protects against oxidative stress by regulating the Keap1-Nrf2 and autophagy pathways. Redox biology, 15, 115–124. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.redox.2017.09.007

Naiini, M. R., Shahouzehi, B., Azizi, S., Shafiei, B., & Nazari-Robati, M. (2023). Trehalose-induced SIRT1/AMPK activation regulates SREBP-1c/PPAR-α to alleviate lipid accumulation in aged liver. Naunyn-Schmiedeberg’s archives of pharmacology, 10.1007/s00210-023-02644-w. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00210-023-02644-w

Pagliassotti, M. J., Estrada, A. L., Hudson, W. M., Wei, Y., Wang, D., Seals, D. R., Zigler, M. L., & LaRocca, T. J. (2017). Trehalose supplementation reduces hepatic endoplasmic reticulum stress and inflammatory signaling in old mice. The Journal of nutritional biochemistry, 45, 15–23. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnutbio.2017.02.022

Pan, S., Guo, S., Dai, J., Gu, Y., Wang, G., Wang, Y., Qin, Z., & Luo, L. (2022). Trehalose ameliorates autophagy dysregulation in aged cortex and acts as an exercise mimetic to delay brain aging in elderly mice. Food Science and Human Wellness, 11(4), 1036–1044. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2213453022000325?via%3Dihub

Shafiei, B., Afgar, A., Nematollahi, M. H., Shabani, M., & Nazari-Robati, M. (2023). Effect of trehalose on miR-132 and SIRT1 in the hippocampus of aged rats. Neuroscience letters, 813, 137418. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neulet.2023.137418

S N Chaitanya, N., Devi, A., Sahu, S., & Alugoju, P. (2021). Molecular mechanisms of action of Trehalose in cancer: A comprehensive review. Life sciences, 269, 118968. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lfs.2020.118968

Sun, L., Zhao, Q., Xiao, Y., Liu, X., Li, Y., Zhang, J., Pan, J., & Zhang, Z. (2020). Trehalose targets Nrf2 signal to alleviate d-galactose induced aging and improve behavioral ability. Biochemical and biophysical research communications, 521(1), 113–119. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbrc.2019.10.088

Yoshizane, C., Mizote, A., Arai, C. et al. Daily consumption of one teaspoon of trehalose can help maintain glucose homeostasis: a double-blind, randomized controlled trial conducted in healthy volunteers. Nutr J 19, 68 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12937-020-00586-0

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