The study, led by Panayotis (Peter) K. Thanos, senior research scientist at RIA, appears in the current, online version of Oncotarget Aging.<\/em><\/p>\n Thanos and his team studied the genes in dopamine to assess their impact on lifespan and behavior in mice<\/strong>. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that helps control the brain’s reward and pleasure centers and helps regulate physical mobility and emotional response.<\/p>\n The researchers found that the dopamine D2 receptor gene (D2R) significantly influences lifespan, body weight and locomotor activity, but only when combined with an enriched environment<\/strong> that included social interaction, sensory and cognitive stimulation and, most critically, exercise.<\/p>\n “The incorporation of exercise is an important component of an enriched environment and its benefits have been shown to be a powerful mediator of brain function and behavior,” Thanos says.<\/p>\n The mice in the enriched environment lived anywhere from 16 to 22 percent longer<\/strong> than those in a deprived environment, depending on the level of D2R expression.<\/p>\n “These results provide the first evidence of D2R gene-environment interaction playing an important role in longevity and aging,” Thanos says. “The dichotomy over genes versus environment has provided a rigorous and long debate in deciphering individual differences in longevity. In truth, there exists a complex interaction between the two which contribute to the differences.”<\/p>\n Research exploring this genetic-environmental interaction should lead to a better understanding and prediction of the potential benefits of specific environments, such as those including exercise, on longevity and health during aging.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" From the University at Buffalo\u00a0media release: Researchers at the University at Buffalo Research Institute on Addictions have discovered how a gene in the brain’s dopamine system can play an important… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[350,321,357,337,356,339,6],"tags":[268,451,49],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18948"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18948"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18948\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19134,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18948\/revisions\/19134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"fitness\"](\"http:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/youth_fitness.jpg\")
Researchers at the University at Buffalo Research Institute on Addictions have discovered how a gene in the brain’s dopamine system can play an important role in prolonging lifespan<\/strong>: it must be coupled with a healthy environment that includes exercise.<\/p>\n