Speaking with NutraIngredients at the recent Vitafoods Europe in Barcelona, Vincent van Buul, director innovation, application and formulation EMEA, for dsm-firmenich, explained that the company is moving beyond traditional condition-based health narratives to target the cellular mechanisms underlying aging.
While humans are increasing our lifespan, our cells don’t necessarily keep up, he explained, so targeting those hallmarks of aging can help the cells keep up and the body can function optimally for longer.
“There are 12 different hallmarks of aging dispersed into different categories,” he said, “and we also look at the science, which ones are actually something that we can modulate with the solutions that are out there.”
This approach led the company to focus on four specific hallmarks: Chronic low-grade inflammation, gut microbiome composition, mitochondrial function and cellular energy, and cellular senescence.
On the topic of the gut microbiota, which van Buul described as “one of the most fascinating hallmarks of aging,” he noted that not only does the composition of the gut microbiome change as we age, but that the villi lining the gut also change.
“These are physical characteristics of how we change with age, and this is something we can also clearly direct,” he said.
For mitochondrial function, which declines with age, the focus is on energy and understanding the fluctuations in energy as we get older and really looking into the cell, he said. Finally, cellular senescence is about ‘zombie cells’ that no longer divide and function correctly but remain metabolically active. As these cells accumulate with age, they secrete harmful inflammatory factors that degrade tissue and drive age-related diseases.
Solutions for an evolving market
A portfolio of ingredients that may target select hallmarks of aging is only half the solution, said van Buul, who added that the full solution includes improving compliance. “All these things only work if we take them on a day-to-day basis,” he said. “That means they need to be palatable, they need to be in an enjoyable format, and well, we bring the full solution of the package, understanding the texture, understanding how it interacts with your palate, and even more so, we also see that that we try to understand with which flavors can also bring some nice emotions with taking it, and with it also increase compliance.”
The first signals that the market was shifting based on consumer interest in longevity and healthspan were around the rebranding of old stories like joint health, gut health and brain health into healthy longevity, said van Buul. Now, the situation is more nuanced and sophisticated.
“We want to expand that story and also bring new science and new solutions, and really focus on where there really is something,” he said. “There’s a consumer interest, not just in the old story, but also in the new story with the cells that we can understand and also target and modulate.”
Watch the video for the full interview.
