Taurine is not a biomarker for aging after all

The amino acid taurine is one of the building blocks of the proteins in our bodies and plays multiple other roles in biology. And while previous research has suggested that low levels of taurine may signal—or even drive—aging, a new longitudinal study by Rafael de Cabo and his team at the US National Institute on Aging (NIA) says the answer is more complicated (Science 2025, DOI: 10.1126/science.adl2116).

In 2023 a team led by Vijay K. Yadav then at Columbia University found that levels of taurine decline with age in humans, mice, and monkeys. The group also showed that mice that received extra taurine in their diets lived longer than those that didn’t get the supplement (Science 2023, DOI: 10.1126/science.abn9257).

But, as de Cabo recounted on a call with reporters, when he read the paper in 2023, “something didn't click.” He reached out to colleagues who had metabolomics datasets from different populations of people, as well as those from mice and monkeys.

The NIA team analyzed the various datasets and found that taurine doesn't decline with age in healthy individuals. In fact, there was more variability between groups and individuals in them than there was across lifespan.

The new results show that taurine is not a useful biomarker for measuring aging, the researchers say, and any moves to supplement diets with the molecule inspired by the previous paper were probably premature.

Anytime a publication on supplements and aging comes out, “everybody goes bananas and start taking these supplements,” de Cabo said on the call. “And I think that we need to remind people that these are scientific advances that need to be taken in the context.”

As well as de Cabo and his colleagues, Yadav, who is now at Rutgers University, was on the same call to discuss the new work and how it relates to his conclusions in 2023. He said that the “new and important study” raises new questions about the molecule and that it’s clear that taurine is a “very complex molecule.”