What this means
Researchers gave worms hydroxyproline plus three amino acids and saw longer life and better health markers. This was tested under set lab conditions, so it does not show the same effect in people.
Plain-English summary written by an AI model from the abstract. The original is below.
- Who it was tested in
- Caenorhabditis elegans worms (tiny roundworms) in a lab
- Kind of research
- A study
The science
- Original title
- Hydroxyproline Enhances Branched-Chain Amino Acid Effects on Lifespan and Healthspan in Caenorhabditis elegans.
- Authors
- Liu L, Wu R, Gao Z et al.
- Journal
- The Journal of nutrition
- Published
- Oct 26, 2026
- Study type
- Study
- PMID
- 42933652 ↗
Abstract
Food-derived protein hydrolysates frequently contain both collagen-associated hydroxyproline (Hyp) and branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs), but the biological consequences of their combination remain unclear. This study tested whether Hyp changes the effects of leucine (Leu), isoleucine (Ile), and valine (Val) on lifespan and healthspan-related phenotypes in Caenorhabditis elegans and whether these treatment effects are accompanied by coordinated microbial and metabolic remodeling. Amino acid concentrations that did not strongly disrupt bacterial food clearance were selected for lifespan, stress-resistance, motility, muscle-integrity, biochemical, microbiome, metabolomic, and transcriptomic analyses. Hyp+BCAA combinations improved lifespan- and healthspan-related phenotypes in a BCAA- and dose-dependent manner. The strongest combined treatments enhanced resistance to thermal and oxidative stress, preserved age-associated motility and muscle structure, reduced oxidative and lipofuscin-associated markers, and increased ATP-related readouts. Multi-omics profiling showed that these direct treatment effects were accompanied by distinct C. elegans-associated microbiota signatures, altered NAD precursor-related metabolites including nicotinic acid ribonucleoside (NaR), and a Leu+Hyp transcriptional response enriched for energy metabolism, proteostasis, and extracellular-matrix remodeling. Integrated microbiome-metabolome analysis identified a positive association between Rhodococcus abundance and NaR levels. These findings demonstrate that, under the tested culture conditions, Hyp+BCAA exposure improves longevity-related phenotypes and identifies microbial composition, NAD precursor metabolism, and host energy homeostasis as candidate, testable mediators.
Liu L, Wu R, Gao Z et al. Hydroxyproline Enhances Branched-Chain Amino Acid Effects on Lifespan and Healthspan in Caenorhabditis elegans. The Journal of nutrition. 2026. doi:10.1016/j.tjnut.2026.101898. PMID: 42933652. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42933652/
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