Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by janrinok on Saturday January 11 2020, @09:25AM   Printer-friendly
from the "who-wants-to-live-forever?" dept.

Biologists identify pathways that extend lifespan by 500%:

Scientists at the MDI Biological Laboratory, in collaboration with scientists from the Buck Institute for Research on Aging in Novato, Calif., and Nanjing University in China, have identified synergistic cellular pathways for longevity that amplify lifespan fivefold in C. elegans, a nematode worm used as a model in aging research.

The increase in lifespan would be the equivalent of a human living for 400 or 500 years, according to one of the scientists.

The research draws on the discovery of two major pathways governing aging in C. elegans, which is a popular model in aging research because it shares many of its genes with humans and because its short lifespan of only three to four weeks allows scientists to quickly assess the effects of genetic and environmental interventions to extend healthy lifespan. Because these pathways are "conserved," meaning that they have been passed down to humans through evolution, they have been the subject of intensive research. A number of drugs that extend healthy lifespan by altering these pathways are now under development. The discovery of the synergistic effect opens the door to even more effective anti-aging therapies.

The new research uses a double mutant in which the insulin signaling (IIS) and TOR pathways have been genetically altered. Because alteration of the IIS pathways yields a 100 percent increase in lifespan and alteration of the TOR pathway yields a 30 percent increase, the double mutant would be expected to live 130 percent longer. But instead, its lifespan was amplified by 500 percent.

"Despite the discovery in C. elegans of cellular pathways that govern aging, it hasn't been clear how these pathways interact," said Hermann Haller, M.D., president of the MDI Biological Laboratory. "By helping to characterize these interactions, our scientists are paving the way for much-needed therapies to increase healthy lifespan for a rapidly aging population."

The elucidation of the cellular mechanisms controlling the synergistic response is the subject of a recent paper in the online journal Cell Reports entitled "Translational Regulation of Non-autonomous Mitochondrial Stress Response Promotes Longevity." The authors include Jarod A. Rollins, Ph.D., and Aric N. Rogers, Ph.D., of the MDI Biological Laboratory.

[...] The paper focuses on how longevity is regulated in the mitochondria, which are the organelles in the cell responsible for energy homeostasis. Over the last decade, accumulating evidence has suggested a causative link between mitochondrial dysregulation and aging. Rollins' future research will focus on the further elucidation of the role of mitochondria in aging, he said.

More information:

Jianfeng Lan et al. Translational Regulation of Non-autonomous Mitochondrial Stress Response Promotes Longevity, Cell Reports (2019). DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2019.06.078

Journal information: Cell Reports


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by HiThere on Saturday January 11 2020, @09:14PM (1 child)

    by HiThere (866) Subscriber Badge on Saturday January 11 2020, @09:14PM (#942309) Journal

    FWIW, caloric restriction isn't proven to work on humans, it's proven to work on rats, and I think mice. You can't really compare those results to the "16 hours without eating" results or the intermediate fasting results. There was also another result that, IIRC, wasn't proven for humans where there was a restriction in only one amino acid (tryptophane, IIRC), that yielded rats that lived twice as long...with side effects that they lost all their hair and went crazy.

    That said, being only marginally obese, or not quite that, is probably the healthiest weight. But, IIRC, that comes from a balance between ability to fight off infections, and skeletal wear.

    You'll notice a lot if "IIRC"s in this post, because a lot of the articles were things I read decades ago, when I was following that stuff more closely. I'm definitely *not* an expert in the field.

    --
    Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Moderation   +1  
       Interesting=1, Total=1
    Extra 'Interesting' Modifier   0  
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   3  
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 12 2020, @06:53AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 12 2020, @06:53AM (#942449)

    How are you going to "prove it " in humans?

    Here is a tip, most "side effects" of chemo drugs are probably life extending. Nausea and loss of appetite -> Caloric Restriction. Anemia -> Less iron toxicity. Etc. There has never been a single clinical trial that controlled for these effects, everyone just buys whatever byzantine mechanism they came up with via a chain of NHST results and call the real mechanism a "side effect".