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UCLA Biologists Delay the Aging Process In Fruit Flies

Posted by Soulskill on from the mrs-frisby-and-the-fruit-flies-of-NIMH dept.

An anonymous reader writes:Life scientists at UCLA have located a gene in fruit flies which, when intentionally activated, increases lifespan by about 30%. The gene (called AMPK) is normal important as an energy sensor, usually triggered by cells with low energy levels. By triggering it at other times, the researchers slowed the fruit flies' aging process (PDF), even beyond the organ system in which the triggering occurred. "Walker said that the findings are important because extending the healthy life of humans would presumably require protecting many of the body's organ systems from the ravages of aging — but delivering anti-aging treatments to the brain or other key organs could prove technically difficult. The study suggests that activating AMPK in a more accessible organ such as the intestine, for example, could ultimately slow the aging process throughout the entire body, including the brain."

2 of 82 comments (clear)

  1. Old news by buck-yar · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Fitness community has been all over this for years http://suppversity.blogspot.co...

  2. Economic Impacts by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Let's assume for a moment this is scalable to humans and passes the requisite clinical trials. We'll treat this as a given in a Euclidian proof.

    Premise 1: Humans will live longer, but this treatment will be expensive
    Premise 2: In the absence of substantive reform that mitigates cost to the patient, regardless of socio-economic status, this will stratify the have and hane-nots further.
    Premise 3: We already have a culture of the "disposable employee" in many markets, especially in retail, food-service, housekeeping and hospitality
    Premise 4: Humans, being self-aware, fear death
    Premise 5: If unchecked, stagnant wages relative to inflation are going to exacerbate the current US status-quo in terms of younger working adults competing with Boomers who refuse to retire and becoming lower-wage workers who become "disposable labor."
    Conclusion: The extended lifespans are going to require some serious economic, legislative and even societal shifts to accomodate. We may very well have to adjust the age of adulthood, our expectations of what one does in the traditional "early adluthood" and we will have to once again consider retirement is either a feint, or address the issues surrounding labor, the shortage of jobs realtive to workers and living wages, else we will see longer lifespans in the absence of these changes creating serious economic reprecussions. It's great this technology exists, however, we have to consider policy implications in addition to the scientific advancement. I do realize that the model is a fruitfly, and is a long way from mammal models and even further away from human clinical trials, but with the state of the Western economies as they all seem to be (according to the media nayway), then we really need to stop and consider the rammifications of a 30% increase in human lifespans.