U.S. scientists are using microscopic worms to expand human knowledge of aging and inherited diseases.

   University of Colorado-Boulder researchers, in what's believed the first formal study of its kind, have manipulated the metabolic state of genetically engineered lab worms called C. elegans, enabling the worms to slow their rate of aging.

   The study's findings could contribute to the creation of gene therapies to reverse or lessen the effects of mitochondrial diseases such as Huntington's, Parkinson's and Alzheimer's, said lead study author Shane Rea of the University of Colorado-Boulder's Institute for Behavioral Genetics.

   "We appear to have found a window where life is able to preserve itself even better than when operating in the absence of any cellular defects," said Rea. "It's a metabolic state where cells are probably getting close to the best they can be for long life and good health."

   The study -- written by Professor Thomas Johnson and the University of Rome's Natascia Ventura -- appears in the journal PLoS Biology.

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