Lifespan Extension
An article came out in the New York Times yesterday about some current research into a specific gene and its effects on extending lifespan. While the article isn't nearly scientific enough to be useful, I figure that it is a great place to start discussion on the subject. It contains a lot of information that could easily lead to some scientific publications that would be of far greater use for an intrepid researcher.
The article in question. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/17/science/17longevity.html
If the information in this article is accurate and its importance isn't overstated, it seems to me that gene modding to the end of reducing IGF-1 production would produce exceptional results. Additionally, the article mentions a drug that has a similar effect, meaning that there may be other ways to achieve very similar results.
Even aside from this specific article and its subject matter, there must be other ways to possibly extend one's lifespan. I've heard things about resveratrol (a substance found in red wine), but I haven't done any extensive research to know much more about it. I personally can't think of a way to implant physical objects that could extend one's lifespan at our current level of technology, but I'm by no means an expert on the subject.
Comments
This article reminded me of someone I learned about in my human development class (I'm a psych major), her name is Brooke Greenberg, she's 18 years old and she has never progressed (physically, mentally, etc.) past that of an infant. She has an unknown condition that has essentially turned off or drastically slowed the aging process, her body is not growing at anything that even approaches a normal, I think that doctors have said that her teeth would place her age at something like 8 years old (she still has her baby teeth) while her bones say something else entirely. If doctors can find what it is in her make up that has caused her condition then it would in theory be possible to turn off the aging process. There was a similar case in Australia, a 40 year old man who looks to be about 10. It will be interesting to see how long these individuals live to be because at this point, doctors just have no clue. Brooke Greenberg has been in featured in a bunch of specials and news reports and things, you can find videos on youtube if you're interested.
Hmm... you have a point, yeah I'd imagine that probably applies to her, not sure why it wouldn't.
Hayflick limit, oh god, my bio class last semester has just come rushing back
so... much... meiosis....
the hayflick limit does not apply for cancer cells, so I don't see a reason why it should be inevitable. There is telomerase which allows stem cells (and cancer cells) to divide as often, as they like
I've been trying to IF for like a week now but can't stick with it, my problem is that I get bored and eat, I have far too much free time so you can see how this is a problem.
Anyone have any success/failure stories?
Not sure how dangerous it is (when it's done correctly), hard to find any real consensus, but I'm about ready to just give up trying, not worth the hassle.
The thing I don't like about cr, at least when people go crazy with it, is that it seems like they all end up looking anorexic, so congrats on not!
But yeah, it's kind of hard to tell whether it works or not, am I old because of I have good genes or because I don't eat? But I read somewhere that if you take the weight that you naturally lean toward and subtract 10% you're going to see some kind of results, so I tend toward 170-5 so I would aim for 150-something. I tried this but I was unable to lose more than like five pounds which I would gain back the next week, ha ha ha.
I found studies but I didn't save the links, I was reading some random discussion about IF on imminst, I closed the tab and haven't been able to find it since (though I haven't tried that hard) if you have the time to dig through the forum you might find them, sorry. As far as using it for weight control, probably not the best idea (at least by itself, maybe combine with diet and exercise?), there was a link to an article that explained why IF for weight control was not as effective compared to other methods, but I was only skimming by the article by the time it got to this point, so...
If you're looking for studies you could try searching pubmed.
extending life does not only mean repairing cells, it also means that we have to find a way to clean out bodies more efficiently. our kidneys, for example, will not be enough, if we don't find a way to remove heavy metals and other enviromental toxics that settle in our bodies, which will eventually reach a level where they kill filtering organs. Transplants may be a solution. but not the best. ah damn i am tired .
i want to get this down before i go to sleep an maybe forget it, so sorry for my gibberish etc bla bla.
oh btw we can extend our lifespan in some way more easily ok you don't get so much mileage out of it, but think about it:
a more healthy lifestyle! the less you are ill the less your body uses up cells for regeneration of lost body tissue = more cell splitting cycles for aging
how ?
giving him what he needs nutrition and training.
a trained body is more likely to survive for a longer time.
of course better immune system is always in the way for gene therapy......
ah damn this is all loose ends
please fogive me i go to bed .
Of course, you hit it right on the mark when you suggested that we could improve our immune system genetically. I expect that the easiest way to increase lifespan using genetics would be to do things like that, or that would otherwise improve our health.
As for cleaning out our bodies, we can always increase the efficiency of our kidneys, or add more "filters," but it's almost inevitable, at least as far as I can tell, that we'd need to replace them over some period of time, in the same way as we need to replace other filters as junk accumulates on them. Now, maybe we could invent filters that, in principle, last forever, but I'm somewhat pessimistic on that possibility ;-)
~Ian
EDIT: fucking grammar
For those not already familiar, the reason why this works is because natural selection does not work after the individual has already given birth, because there's no longer any reproduction going on, so there's no longer any selection pressure. So, the genes that break us down after our 40s get passed on to the next generation, with no outcry from natural selection at all. So, the idea is to force a species to give birth at progressively later ages, so that natural selection is forced to start selecting for genes conducive to longer lifespans. Then, since that species shares quite a significant fraction of their genome with humans (75%, in the case of fruit flies), we can use the genes in the longer-lived population to genetically engineer longer healthspans into humans.
Thanks for catching that; I never would have remembered that :-)
I've never managed to stick with a reduced calorie diet because it has to be significantly reduced before you start seeing much benefit. Most of the successful animal tests have been with a 10% to 25% reduction in calories, and I find it difficult to live on 2000 calories a day. My fast metabolism wouldn't let me live on 1500.
Intermittent fasting is also pretty tough, because you have to do it regularly before the benefits start showing up. The studies I've seen have rats that miss food every other day.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calorie_restriction#Intermittent_fasting_as_an_alternative_approach
People with more will power than me might be able to get a lot of benefit from CR. At the moment, my best bet is to live a healthy life and try to help out with genetic engineering research as much as possible. Robotic or clone kidneys will hopefully exist by the time I need mine replaced.
with this post I would like to RE-open the discussion about lifespan extension that seams to be sleeping since 2011...
There are many news in the field so it wort to have a look.
I will try to make this text as clear as possible even if some biological knowledge is needed to fully understand it and since wikipedia offer a simple and comprehensive overview I suggest everyone to read the linked pages to make clarity.
I also apologies for all the english mistakes you will find, I am not a mother language speaker.
What is aging?
It is a process influenced by genetic and environmental factors that leads to the malfunctioning of a body and eventually to the death.
The effects of aging influence a living organism at any level, it start with the alteration of "normal" cellular pathways that over time affect the functionality of tissues and organs.
More basic informations are available here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ageing
Several processes have been found to cause aging at cellular level, the British biogerontologist Aubrey de Grey (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aubrey_de_Grey) highlighted seven main categories of 'damage', seven alterations whose reversal would constitute negligible senescence:
cell loss or atrophy (without replacement),
oncogenic nuclear mutations and epimutations
cell senescence (Death-resistant cells)
mitochondrial mutations
Intracellular junk or junk inside cells (lysosomal aggregates)
extracellular junk or junk outside cells (extracellular aggregates)
random extracellular cross-linking
For each of these areas de Gray offers at least one strategy, with a research and a clinical component. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategies_for_Engineered_Negligible_Senescence).
Lately it comes out that the whole aging process can be under control of few key genes. Leonard Guarente (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonard_P._Guarente), David Sinclair (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Sinclair_(biologist) ) and Cynthia Kenyon (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cynthia_Kenyon), among others, studied few genes that show to regulate aging controlling several other genes (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetics_of_aging).
Several experiments have shown that single mutation one one of the "aging genes" can increase the lifespan of different organisms and the worm C.elegans is one of the most studied until now.
"Kenyon showed that the daf-2 mutants, which would form dauers above 25 °C (298 K; 77 °F) would bypass the dauer state below 20 °C (293 K; 68 °F) with a doubling of lifespan."
"Subsequent genetic modification (PI3K-null mutation) to C. elegans was shown to extend maximum life span tenfold."
It appear also that hormone receptors are key regulators. It is important to underline also that even if the major part of the data is referred to C.elegans (a worm) the genes and the proteins involved are very well conserved in other species, Homo sapiens included!
So to me seams evident that a mix between hormone therapy and few gene-mods can do the trick and increase the lifespan several times!
Ian, where did you get/ how did you make the C-60? I read the mixing with olive oil section on your blog.
I don't know if this is legit or not, but it looks cool: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25tS1lmZIRw
@random: Welcome to the forum. The C elegan study was really cool. Does anyone know if this has been used on mammals?