{"doi":"10.1101/2025.05.11.653363","title":"The broccoli derivative sulforaphane extends lifespan by slowing the transcriptional aging clock","abstract":"Abstract Sulforaphane, an organosulfur isothiocyanate derived from cruciferous vegetables, has been shown to inhibit inflammation, oxidative stress, and cancer cell growth. To explore the potential of sulforaphane as a candidate natural compound for promoting longevity more generally, we tested the dose and age-specific effects of sulforaphane on C. elegans longevity, finding that it can extend lifespan by more than 50% at the most efficacious doses, but that treatment must be initiated early in life to be effective. We then created a novel, gene-specific, transcriptional aging clock, which demonstrated that sulforaphane-treated individuals exhibited a “transcriptional age” that was approximately four days younger than age-matched controls, representing a nearly 20% reduction in biological age. The clearest transcriptional responses were detoxification pathways, which, together with the shape of the dose-response curve, indicates a likely hormetic response to sulforaphane. These results support the idea that robust longevity-extending interventions can act via global effects across the organism, as revealed by systems level changes in gene expression.","journal":"bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)","year":2025,"id":555558,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":3,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9543,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2025-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":611899,"name":"Erik Segerdell","orcid":"0000-0002-9611-1279","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":424639,"name":"Anna L Coleman-Hulbert","orcid":"0000-0001-8090-551X","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":424640,"name":"Erik Johnson","orcid":"0000-0003-4041-7866","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1343195,"name":"Jonathan N. Levi","orcid":"0000-0001-6375-4254","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":228996,"name":"Gordon J. Lithgow","orcid":"0000-0002-8953-3043","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":344124,"name":"Monica Driscoll","orcid":"0000-0002-8751-7429","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":352930,"name":"Patrick C. Phillips","orcid":"0000-0001-7271-342X","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":424637,"name":"Christine A. Sedore","orcid":"0000-0002-9512-2806","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":89,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T02:54:59.329539Z","pmid":"40462948","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}