Common variants in SIRT1 and human longevity in a Chinese population.

Background: The silent information regulator SIR2/SIRT1gene has been demonstrated as regulating lifespan in many model organisms, including yeast, worms, fruit flies and rodents. SIRT1, the human homolog of SIR2, is considered a candidate gene as a modifier of human life expectancy.

Methods: In the current study we included 616 long-lived individuals and 846 matched younger controls to investigate associations between 8 common single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) (i.e., rs12778366, rs3758391, rs3740051, rs33957861, rs7896005, rs12413112, rs11599176 and rs4746720) in the SIRT1 gene and human longevity.

Results: The 8 SNPs had strong linkage disequilibrium (LD) and were in an LD block, which was characterized by 4 common haplotypes that capture 99.3% of the genetic variation present within it. We found no evidence for statistically significant associations between the tested SIRT1 SNPs and longevity at the allele, genotype or haplotype levels.

Conclusions: Current findings show that several common variants in SIRT1 are not associated with human longevity.