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Gene Therapy Extends Mouse Lifespan
Grond writes "ScienceDaily reports, 'Researchers at the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre have demonstrated that the mouse lifespan can be extended by the application in adult life of a single treatment acting directly on the animal's genes. Mice treated at the age of one lived longer by 24% on average (PDF), and those treated at the age of two, by 13%. The therapy, furthermore, produced an appreciable improvement in the animals' health, delaying the onset of age-related diseases — like osteoporosis and insulin resistance — and achieving improved readings on aging indicators like neuromuscular coordination.' Notably, the therapy did not cause an increase in the incidence of cancer."
But they will be divided by a contest for power, for whoever takes the head of another shall gain his might.
I just hope they don't electrocute us all.
Sure, people lose some mental faculty as they age, but in my estimation it's far more likely because of physical degradation of the brain than a hand-waving concept like "degradation of psyche". Stop the physical degradation of the brain, and the mind will remain fresh.
The Harvard researchers didn't use gene therapy to lengthen the telomeres. They engineered a knock-in allele encoding a 4-hydroxytamoxifen (4-OHT)-inducible telomerase reverse transcriptase-Estrogen Receptor (TERT-ER) under transcriptional control of the endogenous TERT promoter. Basically, the mice had short telomeres and the researchers could reactivate telomerase by administering 4-OHT. That's genetic engineering, not gene therapy in adult mice.
Furthermore, the Harvard researchers showed the reversal of artificially-induced aging, but not an increase in lifespan. The researchers in this study demonstrated an increase in lifespan in normal mice.
The Harvard study showed that improving telomerase activity could reverse or slow aging, but it didn't show how to actually accomplish this in normal, adult organisms. That's what the researchers in this study have done, at least in mice.
I really don't need mice that live longer. I need them to find a gene therapy to KILL mice. What's the point of this?
you're right, there's no point in it unless we can fuck hot young women until the end.
Avg. life expectancy USA male: 75.6 (source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_life_expectancy)
Roy Walford died at age 79 of respiratory failure as a complication of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease). (source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Walford)
Love your rage dripping between the lines, though
Perl Programmer for hire
I'd make an off-the-cuff guess that most people could extend their effective lifespans by 24% if they just got +20 minutes of moderate (heart rate up, light sweat) exercise each day. Cost? $0 and 20 minutes of time. Available to everyone, ready for mass implementation today. Compared to gene therapy, anyone could do the exercise today for nothing. And most won't even then.
They report no statistical increase in cancer, but an absence of signal is not a signal of absence, and the methods alone should clue you in.
I guess my tolerance for cute sayings as explanations has declined as my crotchetiness has increased. The phrase you are looking for is "small sample size". Glancing at the rear of the article:
Separate groups of mice were tail-vein injected with 2*10^12 (viral genomes)/animal of either AAV9-GFP, AAV9-mTERT or AAV9-mTERTDN, a catalytically inactive form of mTERT (Sachsinger et al, 2001), at 420 days (AAV9-GFP, n=14 [50% males and 50% females]; AAV9- mTERT, n=21 [52% males and 48% females]; AAV9-mTERT-DN, n=17 [53% males and 47% females]) or either AAV9-GFP and AAV9- mTERT 720 days (AAV9-GFP, n=14 [58% males and 42% females]; AAV9-mTERT, n=23 [52% males and 48% females] of age. All mice are of a >95% C57BL6 background. Longevity comparisons were always made within the same mouse cohort to avoid minimal possible differences in genetic background between the groups.
They had five samples from 14 to 23 in size. That's a bit slim for some of the claims they make such as the bit about cancer.
you're right, there's no point in it unless we can fuck hot young women until the end.
If they don't age, why would we care if they're young?
The looks and energy of an 18 year old combined with the fertility and experience of a 918 year old sounds like the perfect combination to me!
They report no statistical increase in cancer, but an absence of signal is not a signal of absence
What...the...fuck?
You took something you heard people legitimately saying about certain inferences and used in a way that is not legitimate.
Here's an example that is legitimate. A cold will sometimes, but not always, be accompanied by a cough. Therefore a researcher could be trying to examine the incidence of colds by examining the incidence of coughs. Because it's entirely possible to have colds without coughs, you may then legitimately claim that the absence of the signal, the cough, is not a signal of the absence of colds. It's sufficiently correlated that it is a useful metric, but it is not a sufficient metric to draw strong conclusions. The absence of coughs are, however, most certainly indicative of the absence of coughs
No statistical increase in cancer most certainly means no statistical increase in cancer (I'm a member of the tautology club!). It is possible that the the lack in statistical significance was an anomaly (and just how probable an anomaly that would be is quantifiable, and I'm sure is quantified in the paper in the form of a p-value), but it is certainly indicative of no increases in cancer. That is exactly what they were measuring.
Do you want to die today?
You won't tomorrow, either.