ANTI-AGING EFFECTS OF APPLE PROCYANIDINS

Publication Date:
2014-12-01

Institutions involved:

Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Gerontology
Asahi Breweries, Ltd., Ibaraki, Japan
Asahi Group Holdings, Ltd., Ibaraki, Japan
Chiba University Graduate School of Medicine, Chiba, Japan

Participants:
Validated aging models (roundworms, mice); cell cultures

Duration:
Measurements tracked over full organism lifespan

Dosage:
Various

Key Takeaways:

Apple procyanidins matched resveratrol’s lifespan impact, and surpassed vitamin C in protein aggregation suppression. The evidence spans organisms, cell types, and conserved pathways.

Apple PCs (procyanidins) are multitarget polyphenols with impacts across aging hallmarks: oxidative stress, gene regulation, protein integrity, and mitochondrial resilience.

"These findings strongly indicate that APs showed anti-aging effects, such as anti-oxidative, anti-protein aggregation and pro-longevity effects, using model organisms."

Apple Poly Summary:

Why is this study important? This paper presents an unusually broad and detailed look at how apple procyanidins function as anti-aging agents. From increasing lifespan in worms (nematodes), to restoring cardiac electrical rhythm in stressed mice and suppressing Alzheimer- and Huntington-like protein aggregation, the authors offer compelling evidence that procyanidins (PCs) act through multiple conserved biological pathways. Their ability to influence gene expression (SIR2), oxidative stress, ion currents, and proteostasis makes them strong contenders as bioactives in aging and longevity science.

In Plain English: Apple compounds helped worms and mice live longer and protect their hearts and brains from aging damage. These ingredients reduced dangerous proteins in the brain, helped heart cells beat normally, and made muscle cells stronger by lowering stress.

How Worms and Flies Help Us Understand Aging: Studying human lifespan takes decades— too long for researchers to quickly test which compounds might slow aging. That’s why scientists turn to short-lived organisms like yeast, roundworms, and fruit flies. These creatures age in days or weeks, not decades, and share many of the same cellular pathways as humans. By observing how certain nutrients or molecules affect their health and longevity, scientists can spot clues about what might work in people.

For Medical Professionals: Apple-derived procyanidins demonstrated SIR2-dependent longevity effects in nematodes, antioxidant and electrophysiological benefits in Mn-SOD-deficient mice, suppression of ventricular arrhythmias via IK1 restoration, and potent in vitro disruption of Aβ42 and polyQ aggregation. PCs outperformed monomeric antioxidants (vitamin C, EUK-134) in reducing ROS and protecting against neurotoxicity. Mechanistically, actions span SIRT, Nrf2, mitochondrial ROS regulation, and ion channel normalization—indicating therapeutic potential in neurodegeneration, cardiomyopathy, and proteotoxic aging syndromes.

Abstract:

Apple polyphenols (APs) mainly consist of procyanidins (PCs), which are composed of polymerized (–)-epicatechins and (+)-catechins. APs are contained in the edible part of the apple, so apples may be good source of dietary polyphenols. APs have been reported to display several beneficial health effects. In this chapter, we summarize the anti-aging effects of APs on age-related diseases in model organisms. First, treatment with APs or PCs purified from APs extended the lifespan of Caenorhabditis elegans to a similar extent as treatment with trans-resveratrol. In contrast, treatment with APs had no effect on the longevity of sir-2.1 worms, which lack the activity of SIR2, a member of the sirtuin family, indicating that APs showed SIR2-dependent anti-aging effects. In general, polyphenols have anti-oxidant activity. APs and PC dimers showed a higher level of superoxide dismutase-like activity and oxygen radical absorbance capacity than other polyphenols or antioxidants, as well as anti-oxidant effects on mouse myoblast cells in vitro. Next, we orally administered APs to heart/muscle-specific manganese-superoxide dismutase (Mn-SOD)-deficient mice, which exhibit lethal dilated cardiomyopathy due to intrinsic enhanced mitochondrial superoxide. Dietary APs significantly suppressed the progression of cardiac fibrosis, which extended the survival of the mutant mice. Dietary APs also suppressed oxidative DNA damage and reactive oxygen species production in enzymatically-dissociated cardiomyocytes of the mutant mice. Notably, dietary APs also improved the electrophysiological abnormalities, such as action potential and inwardly rectifier potassium current changes in the cardiomyocytes of the mutant mice, as determined using patch clamp techniques, and decreased the incidence of ventricular tachycardia or the induction of fibrillation using a burst ventricular pacing protocol. Furthermore, APs remarkably suppressed amyloid-β protein 42 (Aβ42) aggregation and dissociated Aβ42 aggregates in vitro, indicating that APs are potent suppressors of Aβ aggregation. APs also significantly inhibited Aβ neurotoxicity and stimulated the proliferation of neural PC-12 cells. Interestingly, treatment with APs also reduced polyglutamine aggregation in the C. elegans Q40 strain, a model of Huntington‘s disease. These findings strongly indicate that APs showed anti-aging effects, such as anti-oxidative, anti-protein aggregation and pro-longevity effects, using model organisms. Apple procyanidins are promising functional foods to prevent age-related disorders.

Sunagawa, Tadahiro, Masuda, Isao, and Shimizu, Takahiko. “Anti-Aging Effects of Apple Procyanidins.” Proanthocyanidins, edited by Ingrid Sullivan, Nova Science Publishers, Inc., 2014, pp. 140–154. ISBN: 978-1-63463-430-4.