• By Howard E. LeWine, MD, Chief Medical Editor, Harvard Health Publishing

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What is it that lets some people live to age 100 and beyond? A new study from the ongoing New England Centenarian Study suggests that protective genes may make a big contribution.

In what the researchers describe as the first study of its kind, they analyzed and deciphered the entire genetic codes of a man and a woman who lived past the age of 114. The two so-called supercentenarians had:

• DNA that appeared to be very similar to people who did not have long lives
• about the same number of gene variants linked to increased disease risk as seen in people from the general population whose genomes have been sequenced
• more than 50 possible longevity-associated variants in genes, some of which were unexpected and had not been seen before.

The researchers hypothesize that the genes linked with long life may somehow offset the disease-linked genes. This might then allow an extended lifespan. The results were reported in the journal Frontiers in Genetics.