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Anti-aging

Below are the latest entries in the Anti-aging channel.
We have 15 results for Anti-aging.
1

Ants, Epigenetics, and Aging

Friday 21st of November 2008 01:19:24 PM

Aging researchers are looking into ant biochemistry for much the same reasons as they look into bee biochemistry: these insects produce individuals with vastly different life spans. By comparing long-lived and short-lived specialized members of the same species, researchers may gain greater insight into the biochemical mechanisms of aging:

What can ants, not typically known for long life, tell us about human aging? Potentially much, says Liebig. Ants in a colony are genetically closely related, yet these sisters' body types, behavior and purpose can become specialized and vastly different. Queens typically arise as the single reproductive female in an ant colony, living for as long as 30 years in some species. As head of the colony they stay in the nest dedicated to perform one major task, egg-laying, for their whole life. Workers on the other hand perform brood care, colony maintenance, and complex foraging tasks. Among the workers additional behavioral and morphological differences may exist. Some individuals are larger and more robust with a focus on colony defense, which earned them the name soldiers. How can such big differences arise in each of these ant types' longevity and behavior without some real differences in their DNA?
According to Liebig and his collaborators, the answer can be found in the rising field of epigenetics - the study of inherited changes in the activity of genes - for example, when they turned on or off; changes not caused by alterations in the DNA sequence.

It is an interesting field of study, but I wouldn't hold your breath waiting for applications to human longevity. That might be decades away - by which time I would hope that more direct approaches to engineering greater human longevity are already well advanced.

From fightaging.org by Reason categorized as Medicine, Biotech, Research Research This Blog Entry

The Near Future of Calorie Restriction Research

Thursday 20th of November 2008 07:05:51 PM

A recent review paper on calorie restriction (CR) research makes the case that using smaller, short-lived animals has made it hard to see the detailed picture of CR biochemistry. Only now that larger animals - such as humans and other primates - are in longer-term CR studies is the biochemistry becoming clear.

Endocrine alterations in response to calorie restriction in humans

Prolonged CR has been shown to extend both the median and maximal lifespan in a variety of lower species such as yeast, worms, fish, rats and mice. The biological mechanisms of this lifespan extension via CR are not fully elucidated, but possibly involve significant alterations in energy metabolism, oxidative damage, insulin sensitivity and functional changes in both neuroendocrine and sympathetic nervous systems.
Most of the difficulty in characterizing the systemic endocrine and neuroendocrine changes with aging and CR is due to the limited capability to collect large and multiple blood samples from small animals, which are usually shorter lived, and hence the most studied.

Ongoing studies of prolonged CR in humans are now making it possible to analyze changes in the "biomarkers of aging" to unravel some of the mechanisms of its anti-aging phenomenon. With the incremental expansion of research endeavors in the area of energy restriction, data on the effects of CR in non-human primates and human subjects are becoming more accessible. Detailed analyses from controlled human trials involving long-term CR will allow investigators to link observed alterations from body composition and endocrine systems down to changes in molecular pathways and gene expression, with their possible effects on aging.

It is interesting to consider that some degree of advances in CR knowledge stem from increasing the size of laboratory animals (and slowing down the pace of data collection) rather than the rapid advances in the tools of biotechnology taking place across the past decade.

From fightaging.org by Reason Research This Blog Entry

Another Win For Recellularization

Thursday 20th of November 2008 07:05:49 PM

An article on a s uccessful transplant of a recellularized organ is doing the rounds in the mainstream press:

First a section of trachea was taken from a donor and stripped of cells that could cause an immune reaction, leaving a grey trunk of connective tissue. Stem cells were then taken from Ms Castillo?s bone marrow and grown in Professor Birchall?s laboratory. Stem cells can develop into different kinds of tissue, given the right chemical instructions, enabling researchers to cultivate cartilage and epithelial cells to cover the 7cm graft. It was then ?seeded? with the new cells using a process developed in Milan. Finally the trachea, covered in cartilage and lined with epithelial cells, was cut to shape and fitted.
Professor Macchiarini said: ?The probability that this lady will have rejection is almost zero. She is enjoying a normal life, which for us clinicians is the most beautiful gift.?

You might recall other news from past months on this technique for converting a donor organ into an organ built with the patient's own cells. In essence this is a clever way around the present inability to construct nanoscale scaffolds that have both the right structure and can provide the right biochemical signals to guide cell growth. The extracellular matrix left behind after the old cells are removed becomes that scaffold:

As you might guess from those two posts, much of the published recellularization work to date has focused on building new heart valves - or even complete hearts. It seems that any comparatively simple tissue structures are well within reach of present day tissue engineering, however. A decade from now, this sort of replacement for damaged organs will be commonplace.

From fightaging.org by Reason Research This Blog Entry

Reports From Convergence 08

Thursday 20th of November 2008 07:05:47 PM

Over at Sentient Developments, George Dvorksy has a couple of posts up on the Convergence 08 unconference recently held in Silicon Valley.

Convergence08 examines the world-changing possibilities of nanotech and the life-changing promises of biotech.

A number of well known names from the he althy life extension community were there to present and exchange views.

Tanya Jones discusses Alcor, present and future:

Whole body vitrification: largely depends on the fluid which is a cryopreservant that prevents the formation of ice crystals in the body. Works particularly well for organs, which was its intended application. Automated systems are being built that are dramatically improving the perfusing process. Large animal tests are planned before it's used on a patient, giving unprecedented control over the perfusion process. It's build on bypass operations used in hospitals.

Day 2 closing panel on longevity

Gregory Benford: Benford talks about his research and its implications -- working to augment their genes in the defense of aging. Diabetes is a predictor of Alzheimer's; we share 75% of our genome with fruit flies. Fruit flies get diabetes and Alzheimer's.
Aubrey de Grey: Describes himself as being the most ambitious of the group. But he qualifies that by saying it's because he's the most pessimistic. We need a new approach that's more preventative than the geriatric approach. This has led Aubrey to the belief that we need to apply regenerative medicine to the problem of aging. He said that Terry Grossman and Ray Kurzweil recapitulated many of his views in their book."

Day 2 opening panel on synthetic biology

Benford sees benefits in the medical sciences and talks about advances in Alzheimer's and diabates -- in those fields that are somewhat stuck and not thinking about evolutionary biology in their research and development.
Benford says the European version of the precautionary principle is nothing more than, "never do anything for the first time." But if we're to make any progress about longevity, argues Benford, we need to exploit the entire suite of biology and what it has to offer.

From fightaging.org by Reason Research This Blog Entry

The Mission Impossible of Genetic Redesign For Longevity

Saturday 15th of November 2008 08:09:30 AM

If you had to pick the absolute hardest, most challenging goal possible in biomedical science, I think it might be to alter the genes of adult humans so as to safely extend healthy life. Yet this is pretty much the course of the mainstream aging research community - and so I believe they are setting themselves up for maximal expense and minimal progress:

It is their belief that this is the only practical way ahead: a laborious slog towards complete understanding of aging and metabolism, followed by an even more complex navigation through re-engineering that metabolism to age more slowly. The sheer scale and difficulty of that task is why many scientists feel that meaningful engineered longevity - more healthy years through science - is a long way away indeed.

Here's a paper restating that point:

Studies performed on various experimental model systems indicate that genetic interventions can increase longevity, even if in a highly protected laboratory condition. Generally, such interventions required partial or complete switching off of the gene and inhibiting the activity of its gene products, which normally have other well-defined roles in metabolic processes. Overexpression of some genes, such as stress response and antioxidant genes, in some model systems also extends their longevity.
Such genetic interventions may not be easily applicable to humans without knowing their effects on human growth, development, maturation, reproduction and other characteristics. Studies on the association of single nucleotide polymorphisms and multiple polymorphisms (haplotype) in genes with human longevity have identified several genes whose frequencies increase or decrease with age.

Whether genetic redesigning can be achieved in the wake of numerous and complex epigenetic factors that effectively determine the life course and the life span of an individual still appears to be a 'mission impossible'.

Not impossible, just far, far harder than the alternative - which is to avoid changing human genes and metabolism, rather aiming to repair the damage of aging in the biochemistry we have today, thus reversing the effects of aging. That goal allows us to skip over a great many things we don't understand about human biochemistry and avoid many challenging endeavors - and it will produce more valuable and effective therapies into the bargain.

Why take the hard path to extend longevity a little by slowing aging when there is an easier and more direct path towards reversing aging? The debate over the approach to aging research in the next few decades is vitally important to progress in engineered longevity: the presently dominant strategy is an inefficient path forward, and it will eventually produce therapies that do little to help those of us who have grown old waiting for them. That has to change.

From fightaging.org by Reason Research This Blog Entry