3β-Hydroxy-urs-12-en-28-oic acid prolongs lifespan in C. elegans by modulating JNK-1

Remarkably the c-Jun-NH2-terminal kinase (JNK) pathway is all evolutionarily conserved across species. In view of the hypothesis that increased stress resistance subdue aging, we investigated the role of ursolic acid (3β-Hydroxy-urs-12-en-28-oic acid; UA) in the pioneering aging model Caenorhabditis elegans with an increase in mean and maximum lifespan by up to 30%. Our genetic study unravelled the underlying pathway where JNK-1 is acting independently of insulin-IGF-1 signalling (IIS) pathway to modulate longevity. In support of in vivo results in silico docking study of UA with C. elegans JNK-1 ATP-binding site suggested promising binding affinity exhibiting binding energy of -8.11 kcalmol^-1. UA induced JNK-1 activation in wild-type animals underlie the importance of pharmacological interventions in the delineation of molecular targets for aging and associated pathologies.