# The impact of stress neurohormones on health and aging

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIV OF MASSACHUSETTS MED SCH WORCESTER · 2021 · $376,875

## Abstract

Project Summary
The major goal of this project is to elucidate how stress negatively impacts health and accelerates aging. In
both animals and humans, repeated activation of the fight or flight response increases disease susceptibility
and reduces lifespan. How it does so is not well understood. In mammals, stress disorder symptoms are
associated with high levels of stress hormones such as adrenaline, which are released by the sympathetic
nervous system in response to acute stress. However, the complexity of the nervous system and the
multifaceted stress response in mammals makes the study of how the flight response impairs health and
accelerates aging an exceedingly difficult task. We propose to address this critical question in the nematode
Caenorhabditis elegans. The genetic tractability, short lifespan, and relatively simple nervous system make
C. elegans an exceptional model to uncover mechanisms of stress physiology. We recently showed that
neural stress hormones that are released during the C. elegans flight response negatively impact animal´s
health and lifespan by activating the insulin pathway. We found that early larval stages are particularly
sensitive to the negative health impacts of the flight response. The flight response in C. elegans triggers the
release of tyramine, the invertebrate analog of adrenaline. Tyramine activates an adrenergic-like receptor in
the intestine, which in turn leads to the stimulation of the DAF-2/Insulin/IGF-1 signaling (IIS) pathway.
Stimulation of the DAF-2/IIS pathway inhibits the activation of multiple cytoprotective transcription factors
that enhance stress resistance. In contrast, long-term environmental stressors, such as heat, starvation or
oxidative stress, reduce tyramine release and inhibit IIS, thereby promoting the expression of cytoprotective
genes. Tyramine thus provides a state-dependent neural switch between the acute flight and long-term
environmental stress response. The link between neural stress hormones and the insulin pathway provides
a completely novel paradigm to understand how the perpetuated activation of the flight response negatively
affects health and shortens lifespan. We propose to combine genetics, pharmacology, behavioral analysis
and imaging techniques in C. elegans to elucidate how the flight response activates the insulin pathway and
negatively affects cytoprotective defense mechanisms. The aims of the proposal are 1: Determine how
neural stress hormones modulate ILP secretion from non-neuronal cells to inhibits cytoprotective
mechanisms; 2: Identify neural circuits that inhibit the release of neural stress hormones; 3: Determine the
mechanisms that underlie long-lasting impacts of early-life stress on health and aging. Completion of these
aims will provide a deep understanding into elusive mechanisms of neural modulation of the stress
response. We anticipate that new mechanistic insights into the neural control of the stress response in the
worm will be similarly rele...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10298269
- **Project number:** 1R01GM140480-01A1
- **Recipient organization:** UNIV OF MASSACHUSETTS MED SCH WORCESTER
- **Principal Investigator:** Mark Alkema
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $376,875
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2021-08-01 → 2025-07-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10298269

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10298269, The impact of stress neurohormones on health and aging (1R01GM140480-01A1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10298269. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*