The Curious Case of Shiwako, the Monkey Who Aged Too Fast

The baby monkey was born looking like all the others at the Primate Research Institute in Japan. Peachy soft skin and a warm beige coat. But, gradually, around two or three months of age, she started to look strange.

Deeply set wrinkles were forming in her skin, which was degraded and dry. Her caretakers took to calling her "Shiwako," which loosely translates to "a girl with wrinkles."

Shiwako soon developed cataracts—a clouding of the eye lens that these animals usually don't experience until they're over 20 years old. Likely due to her dwindling vision, she carefully smelled food pellets before placing them in her mouth, unlike the quick sniff and pop of the healthy monkeys.

Baby Shiwako, a Japanese macaque less than a year old, was showing signs of old age.

Her unusual case was published earlier this month in the journal PLOS ONE by Takao Oishi and his team at Kyoto University in Inuyama, Japan. Shiwako, or "N416" as she's scientifically referred to, seems to be the first case of premature aging in a monkey.

Premature aging has been documented in humans, however.

Humans who show similar early aging are diagnosed with a very rare genetic disorder known as progeria. Affecting one in four to one in eight million children, progeria is the result of a well-studied mutation on the LMNA gene, which leads to a poorly-formed protein.

Much like Shiwako, children are born seemingly healthy, and then are diagnosed within the next two years as the telltale signs appear. They develop heart problems, their growth halts, hair begins to fall, skin thins, and bones become fragile.

Progeria patients have increased public awareness and research funding for the disorder. Adalia Rose, a charming 7-year-old progeria patient, rose to internet fame after her YouTube performance of "Ice Ice Baby," while the now-deceased Leon Botha appeared in music videos for the South African rap group Die Antwoord and inspired a one-act Polish opera.

The strongest driving force of progeria research, however, is probably Dr. Leslie Gordon and Dr. Scott Burns. In 1999, the couple launched The Progeria Research Foundation after learning that their new son had the disorder and finding shockingly little information about it. The foundation now rapidly translates research to application, and to date, has located the gene responsible for progeria, financed the first clinical trials for the disorder, and pinpointed a partial treatment.

Studies show that the mutated protein heavily present in progeria patients actually exists in normal cells, too, says Maria Eriksson of the Department of Biosciences and Nutrition at the Center for Innovative Medicine in Sweden.

"All of us have a low frequency of this mutant protein in our cells compared to what progeria patients have," she told Motherboard, and levels of the toxic protein seem to increase as we all age.

The big question now, she says, is whether the protein really contributes to the cause of aging.

As for baby Shiwako, this same mutated protein was not present in her own cells. Though she had premature aging signs, her case is much different from human children with progeria.

Most children with the disorder, around the age of thirteen, succumb to their serious heart conflicts. These develop into increased blood pressure and often heart attack or stroke, says Eriksson. But, according to Oishi at Kyoto University, what took Shiwako's life at the age of three was a terrible case of bloating, in which the monkey's stomach and intestine became full of gas. "I do not think bloat is an age-related disease," he says. "Fast-eaters tend to suffer [from bloat], in my impression. But she was not one."

The curious case of Shiwako's wrinkles, cataracts, and early death is indeed strange. Eriksson says that, contrary to the study's title, "Sporadic premature aging in a Japanese monkey," she's unsure if the young monkey experienced premature aging at all.

Look at the picture, she says. "This quite dramatic skin on the arm of the monkey; it looks like a skin disease." Sometimes it can be difficult to differentiate between aging and ailing skin. But either way, "This is still the first time I've ever seen anything like this."