Old Bee Can Turn Back Time and Become Younger

The brain of older bees becomes young again when they take on the task that actually belongs to younger bees. Scientists have discovered that.

Previous research had already shown that bees remained young as long as they looked after the young bees. But as soon as they leave the nest and start looking for food, they quickly become old. Already after two weeks, their wings are worn, their hairs fall out and their brains function less well.

Question

The researchers found that particularly interesting. "We wanted to find out how flexible that aging process was, so we asked ourselves the question:" What would happen if we let the bees seeking food take care of the young bees again? ", Says researcher Gro Amdam.

Experiment

The researchers got the food-seeking bees to fly out and then removed the caretakers of the young bees from the nest. As soon as the old bees returned home, some could not help but take care of the boy again. The rest of the older bees continued to search for food. After ten days, fifty percent of the old bees who looked after the boy turned out to be considerably better able to learn new things.

Protein

But it did not stop there. The researchers also studied the proteins in the bees' brain. And they discovered that two proteins, in particular, had changed a lot in the brain of the bees who were caring for young people. It is the protein Prx6: a protein that we humans have and that protects us against dementia. And a second protein that prevents other proteins from being damaged.

Younger

By forcing bees to perform a task that does not really fit their age, they become younger, as it were. Their work changes the molecular structure of their brain, allowing the bees to keep the aging process at bay.

And that is also very interesting for us people. "Perhaps social interventions - changing the way you deal with your environment - can help us keep our brains younger. Since the proteins studied are the same as the proteins of bees, these proteins may also spontaneously respond to a specific social experience. "Further research should show whether the effect now observed in bees also applies to humans.