Could We Defeat Aging Through Technological Means?

[Zinkovich]

Well, we all dream about it: not aging, not having to worry about death. But is it possible? A lot of scientists think so, and also think many of the newest fields and theories may allow us to defeat aging in a 10-20 years(!). So, here's your chance to post any other other anti-aging therapies you have possibly heard about, or discoveries that bring us closer to understanding the aging process.

Here's an interesting one: while our cells have limited growth, cancerous malignent tumors have unlimited growth potential(which means their practically immortal, due to the fact that there is no loss of genetic information over generations) due to an overabundance of telomorase(an enzyme involved in the repeating of genetic sequences) in their systems. Some believe that certain therapies involving telomorase might combat, or(to a degree) defeat aging,.

More from wikipedia:

quote:

Aging A variety of premature aging syndromes are associated with short telomeres [1]. These include Werner syndrome, Ataxia telangiectasia, Bloom syndrome, Fanconi anemia, Nijmegen breakage syndrome and ataxia telangiectasia-like disorder. The genes which have been mutated in these diseases all have roles in the repair of DNA damage, and their precise roles in maintaining telomere length are an active area of investigation. While it is currently unknown to what extent telomere erosion contributes to the normal aging process, maintenance of DNA in general, and telomeric DNA specifically, have emerged as major players. Dr. Michael Fossel has suggested that telomerase therapies [a] may be used not only to combat cancer, but to actually get around human aging and extend lifespan significantly. He believes human trials of telomerase-based therapies for extending lifespan will occur within the next 10 years. This timeline is significant because it coincides with the retirement of Baby Boomers in the United States and Europe. [edit] Cancer When cells are approaching the Hayflick limit in cell cultures, the time to senescence can be extended by the inactivation of the tumor suppressor proteins - TP53 and Retinoblastoma protein (pRb). Cells which have been thus altered will eventually undergo an event termed a "crisis" when the majority of the cells in the culture die. Sometimes, a cell does not stop dividing once it reaches crisis. Typically the telomeres are lost, and the integrity of the chromosomes declines with every subsequent cell division. Exposed chromosome ends are interpreted as a double stranded breaks (DSB) in DNA; such damage is usually repaired by reattaching (religating) the broken ends together. When the cell does this due to telomere shortening, the ends of different chromosomes can be attached together. This temporarily solves the problem of lacking telomeres, but during anaphase of cell division the fused chromosomes are randomly ripped apart causing many mutations and chromosomal abnormalities. As this process continues, the cell's genome becomes unstable. Eventually, either sufficient damage will be done to the cell's chromosomes such that cell dies (via programmed cell death (apoptosis or not), or an additional mutation will take place that activates telomerase. With the activation of telomerase, some types of cells and their offspring become immortal, that is, their chromosomes won't become unstable no matter how many cell divisions they undergo (they bypass the Hayflick limit) thus avoiding cell death as long as the conditions for their duplication are met. Many cancer cells are considered 'immortal' because telomerase activity allows them to divide virtually forever, which is why they can form tumors. A good example of cancer cells' immortality is HeLa cells, which were originally removed from the cervical cancer of Henrietta Lacks in 1951 and are still used in laboratories as a model cell line. They are indeed immortal - daily production of HeLa cells is estimated at several tons even up to this day - all from the few cells taken from Ms. Lacks' tumor.

Here's a simple explanation of what's going on from sciencewatch, a website dedicated to keeping track of the current trends in scientific research(admittedly, this if from may 2000, so it might be outdated):

In 1961 Leonard Hayflick discovered the limit that bears his name: normal cells can divide only so many times–roughly fifty–before running out of steam. At #3 is a paper, from Serge Lichtsteiner of the Geron Corporation and Woodring Wright of University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, and their colleagues, proving that telomerase, an enzyme, underpins the Hayflick Limit. The key question was whether telomeres had anything to do with cell aging. The telomere is a repetitive stretch of DNA found at each end of a chromosome. In 1986, Howard Cooke, of the Medical Research Council's Human Genetics Unit in Edinburgh, Scotland, noticed that the telomeres capping sex chromosomes were much longer when those chromosomes came from a germline cell than when they came from a normal body cell. Because of the way DNA replicates, telomeres are shortened each time a cell divides. An enzyme, telomerase, which extends the telomere, had been discovered just before, and Cooke wondered whether it might be inactive in normal human cells. The progressive shortening of the telomere would then impose the Hayflick Limit on the cell's ability to divide. The analogy is with a shoestring–more specifically, the little plastic bit at each end. I don't know who first came up with it, but it is a striking analogy. Just as the little plastic bit (it couldn't possibly have a name, could it?) stops the lace fraying and makes it possible to thread the lace through the eyelets, so the telomere stops the end of the chromosome fraying. And just as one might have to abandon a perfectly good shoelace, just because it has become unlaced after the little plastic bit has been destroyed by wear and tear, so the cell sometimes has to abandon a perfectly good chromosome (and die in the process) just because the telomere has been destroyed. Telomerase, then, is the little bit of Scotch tape that gives new life to a frayed shoelace. Cooke's theory gained support from a great deal of evidence. Crucially, telomerase is present, but inactive, in most normal cells. And it is active in tumor cells, which do not grow old and know no reproductive limit. But the evidence was circumstantial or correlative. The Bodnar et al. paper at #3 offers the first definitive proof that shortened telomeres cause cell senescence. The paper does so by activating telomerase in normal cells–producing, as the authors proclaim, an "extension of life span." The approach depended on two previous discoveries that were hot papers in their time. First, the isolation by Thomas Cech and his colleagues of TRT, the reverse transcriptase subunit of telomerase, the bit that actually adds the repetitive TTAGGG sequence that characterizes telomeres. That sequence, taken from a protozoan, was then used to fish for hTRT, the human version, allowing Wright's group to insert hTRT into normal human cells. "The results," as one commentator put it, "were strikingly unequivocal." The telomeres in cells with hTRT lengthened, and the cells themselves kept on multiplying, through the Hayflick limit and well beyond. At the time the paper was submitted they had made 20 or more "extra" divisions, yet they looked young, vigorous, and essentially normal. Immediately after publication there was interest in blocking telomerase to treat cancers, which skeptics criticized because the telomeres would take too long to shorten. According to Jerry Shay, a member of the team at UTSMC, that's a straw man: no one would consider anti-telomerase as a front-line therapy. "Realistically," Shay tells Science Watch, "I believe telomerase inhibitors will be used after surgery and perhaps in combination with chemotherapy or radiotherapy in a clinical setting of minimal residual disease." The hope is that with the main tumor under control anti-telomerase might target small hidden metastases, shortening their telomeres enough to prevent or delay cancer relapse. Equally exciting is the possibility that telomerase could act as a marker for cancers that are otherwise difficult to detect. Early detection improves clinical outcome enormously, but many cancers, for example bladder cancer, are hard to detect early. A kit targetting telomerase–and Geron has licensed the technology to Roche–would enable routine screening of urine samples in high-risk patients. Shay tells Science Watch that in many cancers the expression of telomerase is a good indication of prognosis, and there are now opportunities for measuring telomerase. "This knowledge," he says, "may help oncologists decide when additional surgery or therapy is needed."

Hayflick Licked: Telomerase Lengthens Life of Normal Human Cells


Here is a study done on telomorase that was published in the January 16th issue of science, demonstrating that telomorase decay is one of the legitimate suspects being looked into when it comes to aging: http://tinyurl.com/k99c5

Interesting, no? What are your thoughts? Have anything else you would like to contribute? I'm specifically trying to find more on nanotechnology being used to repair our own bodies constantly(I know I read about a scientist who thinks we can do that somewhere).

[Pooeypants]

If nobody died, or very rarely died, how would we control our population? Would you accept not being able to have a kid if you want to be immortal?

[Zinkovich]

Quote by: Pooeypants If nobody died, or very rarely died, how would we control our population? Would you accept not being able to have a kid if you want to be immortal?

I'm perfectly happy not breeding, but you must keep in mind that if we unlock the key to defeating age, we would not be able to censor the process or keep it secret without breaking the laws of freedom by which our country functions, not to mention upsetting and panicking the general populace.

The way I see it, if aging is able to be defeated it will be applied sooner or later; it is inevitable that we will have to deal with the new issues it brings eventually.

[Pooeypants]

What if they did keep it a secret? The ruling elites could use it as a way of maintaining in power forever.

Seriously though, if the treatment was available, it would obviously be done firstly on those with the most power and influence, so I guess population control wouldn't be an issue till it spreads to the lower classes.

[Autolykos]

Personally, I do not see this becoming an issue until well after nanotechnology has been made commonplace, and probably after it makes economic scarcity a thing of the past. There would likely be no elites to maintain power, then.

- Rob

[Pooeypants]

By your admission then we'll have become some sort of techno communist state? Some kind of Utopia similar to the United Federation of Planets?

[Autolykos]

Quote by: Pooeypants By your admission then we'll have become some sort of techno communist state? Some kind of Utopia similar to the United Federation of Planets?

"Techno communist state"? I'm not sure what you mean by that, so I don't know if it would apply or not.

It would not be a Utopia, because there would be no fundamental change in human nature. People would still be people, with all of their vices and virtues. On the other hand, one of the fundamental conditions under which we live -- scarcity -- will effectively no longer apply. Linus Torvalds expresses it another way: the future will be "open-source everything".

- Rob

[Nathan Struth]

There are probably genes that control aging, who knows if they're vestigial. THey probably are though. Umm...also Cancer probability rises with age. So maybe if we cured cancer, it would be worthwhile to find the aging genes that I just made up.

[kubedawg]

I think it's possible. But I wouldn't want to live forever.

[Autolykos]

You wouldn't have to. I imagine that the anti-aging treatment would be voluntary.

My own prediction is that those of us in our twenties (and maybe thirties) today will live to see it developed. Of those in our generation, probably one third will never take the treatment. They will die of natural causes. For the remainder, at least one third will eventually go insane and commit suicide, either through extraordinary stunts or simple euthanasia. As for the rest of us -- the future is wide open.

- Rob

[Fonceai]

It would really depend on whether the treatment reverses aging or pauses aging.

[5010]

i noticed that the whole point of telomerase is to prevent cells from reaching senescense, but I think they will find that senescense is a part of the system that allows us to have structure in our bodies. If I could have immortality with the one caveat that it would change me into an immortal slime mold, then forget it.

I've been watching the research from Arqule for cancer and wonder if it could also fix the dangers of DNA degradation over time. They are testing out agents that activate checkpoint systems in cell nuclei, which causes the cell to either repair the damage, go dormant, or commit suicide depending on the extent of the damage. The reason they are using this against cancer is that cancer cells are successful when they disable the checkpoints.

[Autolykos]

AFAIK, there are other ways to achieve apoptosis (programmed cell death) aside from telomere loss.

- Rob

[Nathan Struth]

hmmmm....sounds strange if were created, would I take it???? Definitely possible, but because of evolution, the aging must have been here for a reason! It's proabbly an adaption. (adaptation is a good mutation for the species). I'd still like to see it though.

[JohnMK]

*Eat less, and eat more diversely; ~8% bodyfat is ideal. ~13%/female.
*Bell-curve benefit from exercise: don't exercise too much. But DO exercise!
*Be reciprocally and sincerely emotionally attached to at least one person (e.g. marriage) for as much of your life as possible. I'm not sure if it has to be the same person.
*Don't read/watch the news too much; if you do, try to control and minimize your internal angst.
*Don't overextend yourself with help to others.
*Accept with serenity that which you cannot change.
*Figure out what makes you laugh out loud, and do it!
*If you're a rat, read scientific abstracts at pubmed.gov and you'll get lots of tips.
(e.g., selegiline, which I take at a very low dose just in case it helps humans too)

Those are just a few of my own ideas. Check out the Immortality Institute if you're really interested, both their forum and also their Wiki:

FAQ - ImmInstWiki

[kubedawg]

Well, I certainly have a lot I want to do in my life, and after all, there are many other ways of dying other than of natural causes.

[Hostile55]

Being as i am somewhat misanthropic I think that this is a terrible endevour on the part of these scientists. Immortal humans. Immortal humans with cybornetic implants. Immortal humans with cybornetic implants who manipulate the genes of their children to suit there whims. Immortal humans with cybornetic implants who manipulate the genes of their children to suit there whims IN SPACE!!!

Sounds more like the Borg than the United Federation of Planets to me...

On the upside though there's probably some terrible plague waiting to wipe out humanity before we manage that.

[Hostile55]

Quote by: Pooeypants By your admission then we'll have become some sort of techno communist state? Some kind of Utopia similar to the United Federation of Planets?

Im interested in this Techo-communism Idea. Perhaps if we embraced renewable erergy sources and developed the explitation of polymers (as apposed to mineral materials) there could be enough resources for us all to live like kings. The fundimental reason for the existence of inequality being the apparent scarcity of resources and people are by and large self centered and greedy and therefor not content living with there fair share and so strive to become rich at the expense of others. But could it be possible, just maybe, that technology could provide endless resources so that everyone can be rich? If nano-technology can theorietically turn charcoal into diamond then what does this mean in terms of the scarcety of future resources.

Its little pearls of hope that make the grim reality of human nature all the more painful. The real question is; will the people with the power and authority to do execute such plans actually want to?

[Rainbow]

Quote by: Pooeypants If nobody died, or very rarely died, how would we control our population?

It would become Mankind's nightmare over night.
What about food ?

[Nathan Struth]

Dunno....it has to be here for a reason, the aging genes. I saw a good outer limits episode that discussed this. It's where they discover a vaccination and people get so greedy they kill each other to release it and you;ll have to see the ending:)