Aging is a natural part of life, but that hasn't stopped people from embarking on efforts to stop the process. Unfortunately, perhaps, those attempts are futile, according to University of Arizona researchers who have proved that it's mathematically impossible to halt aging in multicellular organisms like humans. "Aging is mathematically inevitable - like, seriously inevitable. There's logically, theoretically, mathematically no way out," said Joanna Masel, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology and at the UA.
Masel and UA postdoctoral researcher Paul Nelson outline their findings on math and aging in a new study titled "Intercellular Competition and Inevitability of Multicellular Aging," published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Current understanding of the evolution of aging leaves open the possibility that aging could be stopped if only science could figure out a way to make selection between organisms perfect. One way to do that might be to use competition between cells to eliminate poorly functioning "sluggish" cells linked to aging, while keeping other cells intact. However, the solution isn't that simple, Masel and Nelson say.
Two things happen to the body on a cellular level as it ages, Nelson explains. One is that cells slow down and start to lose function, like when your hair cells, for example, stop making pigment. The other thing that happens is that some cells crank up their growth rate, which can cause cancer cells to form. As we get older, we all tend, at some point, to develop cancer cells in the body, even if they're not causing symptoms, the researchers say. Masel and Nelson found that even if natural selection were perfect, aging would still occur, since cancer cells tend to cheat when cells compete.
https://phys.org/news/2017-10-mathematically-impossible-aging-scientists.html
[Abstract]: Intercellular competition and the inevitability of multicellular aging
So, either you die of old age or you die of cancer. Choose wisely !!
(Score: 1) by ElizabethGreene on Tuesday October 31 2017, @03:15PM (1 child)
Perhaps there is something I am missing.
Humans are constructed from a DNA blueprint in a single cell, and the assertion is that over time that blueprint is damaged by repeated copying.
Is there a mechanism, other than our own ignorance, that prevents us from storing a copy of the undamaged blueprint and refreshing ourselves from time to time? I.e. gather tissue samples at a reasonably young age (20's?), convert them to stem cells, freeze them, and then place them in the aged person to replenish their young tissue?
Combined with the recent discoveries around senescent cells I don't see this as a completely hopeless line of research. There is still a great deal of work to do before we can call it impossible.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 31 2017, @10:04PM
...that prevents us
I would come at it from the -which would allow us- angle.
from storing a copy of the undamaged blueprint
Haven't been successful with humans yet to my knowledge.
They did it with a sheep (Dolly).
Take a zygote and remove the nucleus.
Substitute a cell of the individual that you want to clone.
Freezing it at near 0°K will accomplish the "storing".
...but, as has been mentioned upthread, your memories/knowledge don't come along with the single cell.
and refreshing ourselves
"Logan's Run". 8-)
The answer to "a mechanism" would probably be "everything about evolution and genetics, starting from the 1st organism on Earth".
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]