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Aging Process May Be Reversable, Scientists Claim (theguardian.com)
New submitter TheNinjaCoder writes: A new type of gene therapy is showing promise in reversing the aging process. The scientists are not claiming that aging can be eliminated, but say that in the foreseeable future treatments designed to slow the process could increase life expectancy. The Guardian explains the scientists' experiment in its report: "The rejuvenating treatment given to the mice was based on a technique that has previously been used to 'rewind' adult cells, such as skin cells, back into powerful stem cells, very similar to those seen in embryos. These so-called induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells have the ability to multiply and turn into any cell type in the body and are already being tested in trials designed to provide 'spare parts' for patients. The treatment involved intermittently switching on the same four genes that are used to turn skin cells into iPS cells. The mice were genetically engineered in such a way that the four genes could be artificially switched on when the mice were exposed to a chemical in their drinking water. The scientists tested the treatment in mice with a genetic disorder, called progeria, which is linked to accelerated aging, DNA damage, organ dysfunction and dramatically shortened lifespan. After six weeks of treatment, the mice looked visibly younger, skin and muscle tone improved and they lived 30% longer. When the same genes were targeted in cells, DNA damage was reduced and the function of the cellular batteries, called the mitochondria, improved. Crucially, the mice did not have an increased cancer risk, suggesting that the treatment had successfully rewound cells without turning them all the way back into stem cells, which can proliferate uncontrollably in the body." The study has been published in the journal Cell.
Congratulations! But even if you have the cure for aging you'll have to solve some (quite big) problems:
* The danger of overpopulation. If old people don't die, and young people keep making babies, our planet will become overcrowded soon. Which system should be implemented? A policy where you need permit by the government to have babies? Will we make a gigantic ponzi scheme where we put those extra humans on mars, then on other plantes, colonizing the galaxy? What when the whole galaxy is colonized? Intergalactic travel outside of our local group is quite hard, as expansion of space will make those galaxies leave us faster than light before we can get to them.
* The danger of cancer. Often when rejuveniating cells you put them in a mode where they like to multiply. You artificially increase the likelihood for cancer with this to an extent of almost certainity.
The scientists quoted say 10 years away from any sort of human clinical application. One interesting thing to note is that these are progeria mice, who would normally age very rapidly from their condition. So it's more like making them age more normal, not extending their lifespan abnormally. Will be interesting to see if they can use this technique to actual reverse normal aging and extend a normal lifespan, not just one which was previously going to be cut very short.
The party of stupid and the party of evil get together and do something both stupid and evil, then call it bipartisan.
But I'm too old to be sure I really understand this. Wish I could still think like a young man...
Genetic disorder mitigated by genetic manipulation. Yes?
Instead of progeria-afflicted mice, why not attempt the technique on otherwise healthy mice? If that can be made to result in a 30% lifespan extension, that would be notable.
~ Whence do you come, slayer of men, or where are you going, conqueror of space?
That is all.
Some day we're going to have super strong, super smart, mice that live forever and are immune to any disease. But after they conquer the world they probably won't have empathy for us humans for what we've done to them to getbthere.
After reading TFA it seems that there might be other uses for this. some auto-immune diseases like cancer, rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis could benefit by reverting mis-behaving adult T- and B- cells back into pluripotent stems cells. If they are *truly* reverting all the way back to PSC's then they *should* be losing their auto-immune attack memory.
It would certainly be a different way to attack these problems versus stem cell replacement therapy (risky due to the chemo) and immuno-ablation (risky due to reduced immune response).
than live with all these consumerist idiots.
No doubt posted from an iPhone while driving your BMW to Starbucks!
I've got stuff to do.....
Ferret
Sic gorgiamus allos subjectatos nunc
The rule is: if you have a child, your anti aging treatments stop
penalty for breaking rule: death
Pick a number pretty much any number, double it, somebody will pay that.
There won't be an overpopulation problem because only .001% of the population will be able to afford it.
What there will be is huge black market that primarily consists of fake treatments that will kill you, probably. If the odds are a million to one that you get to reset to some lower age or die of old age people will roll the dice.
... in other words, they didn't find cancer yet, in this study. But there is no promise that the same will be true for humans. Cancer cells *are* cells that have been reset to some early proliferative stage of development.
A man, who hadn't seen Mr Keuner for a long time, greeted him with the words: "You haven't changed at all." "Oh!", said Mr Keuner, and went pale.
There is little interesting in reversing the process of aging after the damage is done to bones and tissues. On the other hand, you want to slow it down after your late 20s.
Obviously, if ever there is a public technology, they would be much more interested in spinning it down to older people that has more disposable income, however ultimately, it would be the ultra rich taking more advantage of it for a younger age.
Cool. Now lets see if we can solve that pesky cancer problem.
Oh because there's currently equality in aging. In some current societies 40 is ripe old age if one is lucky to live that long, while in others, some kids go to school, do no work, have no spouse or kids, live on the support of their parents or take on huge debt till they're around 40. I.e. what's decrepit age one place is the start of social adulthood at another. Still, no war b/c of that... ... though YES there are wars and they're often one reason why people there don't live that long, and wars are fought over control of resources which may lead to better economics so looking at it this way, there's ALREADY social consequences and it's well known, nothing new.
Yes differences will get even more pronounced within specific countries too, but there's already large life expectancy differences according to socioeconomic factors, many decades even in adjacent neighborhoods. There's also the proliferation of tech too, now almost everyone in 1st world countries can have a supercomputer in their pocket.
- for this to go horribly wrong in an entertaining science fiction kind of way. "We left him in too long and he reverted to a mass of stem cells."
How will this affect those "lifetime" warranties?
How old would you need to be to retire?...any pension not adjusted for inflation would end up being worthless over time.
How old would you need to be to collect Social Security? There would have to be adjustments made.
Could I still get the senior discounts at age 60?
Would this reverse my baldness?
Could I get it up again w/o Viagra?
Just another day in Paradise
This treatment can help rejuvenate you in the sense that it can make you look and feel younger but it doesn't "reverse the aging process". In order to do that, it would require our telomeres to recover length to allow more cell division. It is the telomeres that cause us to ultimately die because when the cells can no long divide things break down, you get sick and you die. I didn't see anything in the article that described what it does to affect the true aging process. At best, this can raise the quality of life in the latter years which is certainly a welcome improvement.
We'll make great pets
I haven't done a ton of research, however progeria aging seems a pretty logical statement. Progeria may look like accelerated aging, it may even have shared cursors as aging. However it is not aging nor accelerated aging. Wiki uses the word "resembles" and that usage is probably very purposeful. So maybe their might be some take aways learned eventually that may help in corresponding aging process, but maybe (probably) not.
What this research does "resemble" is work towards treatment of an incredible rare disorder that cuts the lives short of those that have it. That is the news here, that advances are being made in terms of potentially helping those with progeria. Framing it as a tonic for eternal life is kind of insulting really.
Or it means space elevators.
Rockets are, as you intimate, not a good tool for this. They are expensive, polluting, risky, and only capable of small payloads.
But a space elevator would serve well in all of those categories. The materials science, which is the primary challenge that must be overcome, is coming along. Once funded -- which is a huge deal, but not an insurmountable one -- space would become much easier to access. At that point, any assumptions about what we can, or can't, do will have to be revised.
For a lot of people, space elevators seem impossible; but they aren't. It's just physics, and it's not unreasonable physics, either. It's just hard physics. Not as hard as fusion; not as easy as rockets.
There are no other technologies in view that will serve. There's no current physics path to "anti-gravity" or "transporters", for instance.
We have many reasons to go to space, most of them excellent. If we have to do it with rockets, it's going to be a very drawn-out, very expensive process. We'll almost certainly establish ourselves, even with rockets, but there won't be any mass transport of human beings going on if that's what we end up with for the long run. It's just too expensive, and the batches are far too small to send large numbers of people in what amounts to a casual manner. Likely any large population in space habitats or planetary settlements in a "we use rockets" environment will have to grow by reproduction rather than import.
We have some tech for moving around in space that looks to be inexpensive; after all, there's no shortage of continuous low-level energy supply in space -- but not for getting there.
Gravity is a bitch.
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
You've established that you'll murder out of jealousy. Is it you or a billionaire who is the worse person?
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I think perhaps there should be a requirement at some point during scientist training that you learn what the word reverse means. Or maybe in tech journalism at least.
An interesting question... Likewise you could ask, when will my toaster learn to talk? The answer is never. Merely living longer doesn't give the ability to do things that are outside their ken, their design specs.
Overpopulation can be dealt with by moving people to other planets.
We can move the telephone sanitizers and marketing people off the planet first, of course.
The rest of us will be right behind.
#include "standard_disclaimer.h"
If also they find a cure for cancer we'll never get rid of baby boomers...
posting to eliminate bad moderation.
The Quirkz Handbook of Self-Improvement for People Who Are Already Pretty Okay
Why live forever at your current age, when you could live forever at a younger one?
*Some cause some side effects to society
Try this practical experiment in your car while driving on a highway. Slow down a little (decelerate and/or downshift). Now throw the gearbox into reverse. Do you detect a difference?
Regards, -- Chris Johansen