https://en.people.cn/n3/2025/1205/c90000-20398792.html

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41592-025-02912-y

A research team at the CAS the Kunming Institute of Zoology has mapped a comprehensive landscape of natural aging in rhesus monkeys, covering all major organ systems. Rhesus monkeys show similarities to humans in terms of physiology, metabolism, and aging phenotypes.

In a previous study, researchers had discover that the aging process in rhesus monkeys has significant nonlinear characteristics, with a distinct acceleration turning point between 16 and 19 years of age, which is equivalent to between 48 and 57 years for humans.

In a study based on 17 female rhesus monkeys aged 3 to 27, samples were collected from 30 major organs, including the skin, multiple segments of the digestive tract, and organs related to the cardiovascular and immune systems, and analyzed through omics data across three molecular dimensions: transcriptomics, proteomics and metabolomics.

Their findings revealed that the aging process in rhesus monkeys occurs at different paces across different 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 further identified key molecular characteristics underlying these differences in organ aging. In fast-aging organs, the translation efficiency of converting mRNA into proteins declines significantly with age, whereas it remains relatively stable in slow-aging organs. This suggests that a decline in translation efficiency may serve as a crucial molecular basis for the varied paces of organ aging, offering new potential targets for future aging interventions.