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posted by martyb on Wednesday June 19 2019, @04:45PM   Printer-friendly
from the Herodotus-may-have-been-on-to-something dept.

New study identifies molecular aging 'midlife crisis'

Working with first author Jamie Timmons, Ph.D., of King's College London and Stirling University Science Park, United Kingdom, and an international group of researchers on human aging, Dr. Wahlestedt made a striking observation: Key molecular programs known to promote longevity do not last beyond midlife.

The study provides a possible new reason why the human disease burden increases so sharply from the sixth decade of life onward as health-protective mechanisms disappear. Which raises the question: If one wishes to boost these established "anti-aging" programs with drugs, nutrients, or lifestyle choices, is it too late to start by the time you reach your 60s? Possibly, said Dr. Wahlestedt — at least if you hope to benefit fully from such interventions.

"For over a decade, it has been clear that key biochemical events regulate the longevity of small short-lived animals such as worms, flies, and mice, but these mechanisms had not been observed to be active in humans," Dr. Wahlestedt said. "In this international clinical and genomic study, we report for the first time that humans use these same biochemical pathways during aging. Surprisingly, however, humans appear to stop using these pathways from about 50 years of age onward. Therefore, how long and how 'hard' each person regulates these pathways may influence human lifespan."

[...] "We've demonstrated that the most valid of 'anti-aging' programs are naturally active in humans and for some reason stop when we reach our 50s," Dr. Wahlestedt said. "This not only provides a specific time window to now study human aging, it also indicates that these established anti-aging strategies may no longer be effective (if too active there can be side effects), and so new approaches will be needed in long-lived humans."

How old are your organs? To scientists' surprise, organs are a mix of young and old cells

Scientists once thought that neurons, or possibly heart cells, were the oldest cells in the body. Now, Salk Institute researchers have discovered that the mouse brain, liver and pancreas contain populations of cells and proteins with extremely long lifespans—some as old as neurons. The findings, demonstrating "age mosaicism," were published in Cell Metabolism on June 6, 2019. The team's methods could be applied to nearly any tissue in the body to provide valuable information about lifelong function of non-dividing cells and how cells lose control over the quality and integrity of proteins and important cell structures during aging.

"We were quite surprised to find cellular structures that are essentially as old as the organism they reside in," says Salk Vice President, Chief Science Officer Martin Hetzer, senior author and professor. "This suggests even greater cellular complexity than we previously imagined and has intriguing implications for how we think about the aging of organs, such as the brain, heart and pancreas."

Longevity‐related molecular pathways are subject to midlife 'switch' in humans (open, DOI: 10.1111/acel.12970) (DX)

Age Mosaicism across Multiple Scales in Adult Tissues (DOI: 10.1016/j.cmet.2019.05.010) (DX)


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  • (Score: 2) by bob_super on Wednesday June 19 2019, @10:09PM (2 children)

    by bob_super (1357) on Wednesday June 19 2019, @10:09PM (#857634)

    That would suck as curse.
    Get thoroughy splatted by a bus when too old to recover, yet live forever.

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  • (Score: 2) by Hartree on Wednesday June 19 2019, @11:16PM (1 child)

    by Hartree (195) on Wednesday June 19 2019, @11:16PM (#857659)

    They had something similar in the anime The Ancient Magus Bride. One of the characters (Cartaphilus) couldn't die, but that didn't stop the decay and injury that came with so much time.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 20 2019, @12:59AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 20 2019, @12:59AM (#857691)

      Which sounds a lot like Tithonus [wikipedia.org] from the Greek myths, or the Struldbrugs from Gulliver’s Travels.