Chinese scientists develop gene therapy which could delay ageing:
BEIJING (Reuters) - Scientists in Beijing have developed a new gene therapy which can reverse some of the effects of ageing in mice and extend their lifespans, findings which may one day contribute to similar treatment for humans.
The method, detailed in a paper in the Science Translational Medicine journal earlier this month, involves inactivating a gene called kat7 which the scientists found to be a key contributor to cellular ageing.
The specific therapy they used and the results were a world first, said co-supervisor of the project Professor Qu Jing, 40, a specialist in ageing and regenerative medicine from the Institute of Zoology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).
"These mice show after 6-8 months overall improved appearance and grip strength and most importantly they have extended lifespan for about 25%," Qu said.
[...] Qu said she hopes to be able to test the method on primates next, but it would require a lot of funding and much more research first.
"In the end, we hope that we can find a way to delay ageing even by a very minor percentage...in the future."
Journal Reference:
Wei Wang, Yuxuan Zheng, Shuhui Sun, et al. A genome-wide CRISPR-based screen identifies KAT7 as a driver of cellular senescence [$], Science Translational Medicine (DOI: 10.1126/scitranslmed.abd2655)
(Score: 2, Insightful) by gtomorrow on Thursday January 21 2021, @07:49PM (16 children)
I apologize in advance if I'm offending any delicate sensibilities but, judging by the wonderful time the entire planet is having since late 2019, haven't we all had enough of Chinese gene-splicing for a while?
Let 1000 flowers bloom...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 21 2021, @07:54PM (4 children)
We all know COVID originated in an American lab.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 21 2021, @08:26PM (3 children)
It's actually possible it developed anywhere from Germany, Britain, Canada, the US, or China. The patents documenting each 'unique' facet of CoVid-19 date back up to 22 years, and the samples, research and ownership of the various research passed hands multiple times over the years.
If CoVid-19 *WASN'T* natural, then the development and weaponization of it was definitely a multinational effort, which leaves us with the question: What else is still in the lab, and are they intended for population control, or as a method to get people taking the vaccines, either for monetization, sterilization, or for testing experimental gene splicing techniques on a population the elites don't care about, failures being documented as a death by the virus or allergic reaction, while getting millions of test cases for say, life extending gene therapies, before the elites consider recieving the treatments themselves?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 21 2021, @09:24PM
What are the patent numbers?
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Friday January 22 2021, @12:27AM (1 child)
While you're searching for explanations, I'll offer a more mundane one.
Several nations and some corporations were probably researching the COVIDS for their own selfish purposes. No cooperation necessary, it was parallel research. Chinese researchers dropped the ball, and allowed the research to escape the lab. Several articles have been published that strongly suggest, but fall short of proving, this scenario. And, by "strongly suggest", I mean VERY strongly suggest.
Of course, the Chinese Communist government vehemently denies this scenario, and punishes any journalist or scientist who even talks about it.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 22 2021, @07:04PM
Welcome to reality. Escaped viruses, voter fraud, collusion, media propaganda campaigns: all things that may look obvious by circumstance but are insanely difficult to prove beyond a reasonable doubt. Especially when your adversary is bigger than you.
(Score: 4, Informative) by Runaway1956 on Thursday January 21 2021, @08:17PM (9 children)
I can offer some parallel thinking. In view of the state of the environment, Earth could use a shorter human life span, and lower human fertility.
Maybe we should invite all the world's species to vote democratically on the issue?
(Score: 5, Insightful) by ze on Thursday January 21 2021, @09:01PM (5 children)
So you think making our already brief lives even shorter could somehow reduce our destructively short-sighted behaviors?
I'd argue the opposite... the further we can extend life spans, the more people might actually think of the future they'll more likely have to personally deal with. At least a little.
Also more likely to put off having kids—potentially indefinitely—or choose not to, than already happens anywhere with sane reproductive rights and decent quality of living...
I'd like to see a full on cure for aging, and suggest that if the whole world had all of the above, we'd all be far better off. I think the cost-benefit to society would actually weigh heavily on the side of preserving knowledge/skills/experience and extending them beyond mortal constraints, and far outweigh saving also on the loss-leading upfront costs of replacement.
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Thursday January 21 2021, @11:40PM (4 children)
That seems pretty optimistic considering that vanishingly few people make day to day decisions with an eye towards the 5-year impact.
Long-term thinking is something that has never had significant evolutionary advantage for our species until recently, while immediate gratification has had enormous benefits since before our ancestors evolved a spine.
Not to mention, any life-extension therapies will almost certainly go primarily to the wealthy and powerful, who are the very ones most responsible for guiding our civilizations on their current destructive paths.
(Score: 2) by deimtee on Friday January 22 2021, @01:34AM (3 children)
They are also the few who do make long term plans, it's just that any plan that has current benefits and far future downsides is acceptable to them. By the time they are in their 60's and achieving real power, they only have to put off the consequences for 20 or 30 years. Their descendants will inherit the benefits, the costs go to society in general.
Give them the opportunity to live to 120 and their plans have to last 50 or 60 years. It is a lot harder to hide negatives for that long.
If you cough while drinking cheap red wine it really cleans out your sinuses.
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Friday January 22 2021, @06:50AM (2 children)
> Their descendants will inherit the benefits, the costs go to society in general.
And therin lies the problem. Doesn't mater whether it's 5 decades or 20 - once you've accumulated sufficient wealth and power, neither you, nor your descendants, will be the ones who have to deal with the consequences.
(Score: 2) by deimtee on Friday January 22 2021, @07:23AM (1 child)
To clarify, there is no point going after individuals who created superfund sites in the 1960's. If they were old enough to have that sort of control of a company back then, they are probably dead now, their estates probated, and there is no way to punish or get restitution.
Letting them live longer means they either have to do a better job in the first place, or hide it for much longer. Hiding toxic waste for twenty years is easy. Put it in drums and bury it, they take that long to rust out. Hiding it for 60 years is much harder, it is probably easier to dispose of it properly.
Similarly for most problems, indefinitely putting off the consequences is pretty damn close to "sustainable".
If you cough while drinking cheap red wine it really cleans out your sinuses.
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Friday January 22 2021, @02:19PM
Okay, I can see where you're coming from for minor "one off" criminal issues, just not the systemic issues that are the major problem.
Even then - there's still everyone who participated without blowing the whistle we could go after - it wasn't the executives who barrelled and buried the waste. Not to mention the estates of the executives who made the call. Knowing that your children would suffer because of your crimes would be some deterrent. Perhaps not much of one, but I see no reason to let those who profited from your crimes keep the profit when they're discovered. And if the executive is only very old, let them die in prison or on the streets.
The reality though is that even when these sorts of things are caught quickly, the corporation gets a fine, and the executives *maybe* get a slap on the wrist. Hardly a disincentive.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 21 2021, @09:21PM (1 child)
Lower fertility yes, but after the counterrevolutionaries have been purged, we will be able to much more rapidly mobilize a response to AGW. There will be no need to artificially limit lifespans, especially with easy, confidential access to abortion and free birth control pills provided by our one world government-owned and operated healthcare system.
Woman has taken control of her own body and is taking control of her own biological evolution.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Thursday January 21 2021, @11:18PM
Oh - you didn't get the word? It's the revolutionaries who are going to be purged first. We'll get to the counterrevolutionaries in the second round.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 22 2021, @05:59AM
Maybe we should start with Runaway1956 to see how that goes.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 21 2021, @11:01PM
But... but.. thousands of Uighur's sacrificed their life to set the path for those lab mice. Think of the Uighurs!!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 21 2021, @08:17PM
Ah yes, the Eugenics Wars.
(Score: 3, Funny) by mhajicek on Thursday January 21 2021, @09:40PM
Because this is how you get a zombie apocalypse.
:)
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Snotnose on Thursday January 21 2021, @09:48PM (2 children)
Back in the late 70s/early 80s as a college student I had to write a term paper on something. I chose aging. The latest Omni magazine had an article on it and I quoted it heavily. I, as a young 20 something, figured organ transplants and gene therapy would have people like me (e.g. early 20s) living to 150 years and beyond.
I lost that paper during a move but wish I still had it to re-read (it was titled Never Say Die, after Black Sabbath's newest album). I remember 2 things about it:
1) Teacher said I got bumped up a grade because it was printed on an Epson MX-80, not handwritten (I got that a lot at the time)
2) It was forward thinking.
I got an A on it.
/ same class, wrote another paper on how to make a bomb
// described dissolving styrofoam in gasoline to make a poor man's napalm, amongst other stuff. Chemistry classes for the win.
/// got an A on that one too, if memory serves "disturbing content, but readable", readable due to my Epson MX-80 printer.
When the dust settled America realized it was saved by a porn star.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Friday January 22 2021, @12:31AM (1 child)
How many cubic inches of styrofoam to the quart of gasoline? It's an outrageously big number, as I recall. Dish soap is easier to transport, I think.
(Score: 2) by deimtee on Friday January 22 2021, @07:29AM
It doesn't have to be foam, that's just quicker to dissolve. Any plastic with a 6 in the little recycle symbol is polystyrene.
If you cough while drinking cheap red wine it really cleans out your sinuses.
(Score: 2) by mendax on Thursday January 21 2021, @10:15PM (3 children)
Who would want to live longer on this accursed planet? I'm getting to an age when things stop working as they used to. At times I think assisted suicide should be widely available for all. Now that would be the real innovation in our society.
It's really quite a simple choice: Life, Death, or Los Angeles.
(Score: 2) by arslan on Thursday January 21 2021, @11:07PM
But this is about delaying ageing and obviously you'd want to do that before you get to an age where things are already starting to atrophy. You have a good point though and I'd think we want both this and what you suggested - as it is we have neither.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by PinkyGigglebrain on Friday January 22 2021, @02:53AM (1 child)
The ones who want to live longer are the ones who know that whatever happens they have the money and power to protect themselves from everything else on this accursed planet.
You know who they are. The ones who have the money to keep all the negative impacts of the current world situation from effecting them. You know the ones I'm talking about, the ones who have a winter/summer homes. They can afford to move them at the drop of a hat. Or just get a huge boat so the can live near the coast and not worry about rising sea levels and winter storms (head to where it's summer) The ones who don't have to worry about how much their food/utils/rent costs them because at the end of the day they STILL have more money than they had in the morning. And they can afford to get the best medical care available, including the cosmetic options so the don't show their real ages.
And when it really gets too bad here on Earth they can always go to Mars, because they can afford it.
"Beware those who would deny you Knowledge, For in their hearts they dream themselves your Master."
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 22 2021, @06:02AM
Because everyone else don't want to live longer. Sure, mate.
(Score: 2) by fakefuck39 on Thursday January 21 2021, @10:19PM
As far as I'm aware, kat7 makes an enzyme that's needed for DNA replication. That is all the gene does - makes proteins that make this enzyme.
So, if this enzyme is an issue, why do we need gene therapy or crispr or any of that. We can pop a pill to destroy the enzyme. He have many pills like that - for example to prevent hair loss (finasteride), and to force people quit booze (disulfiram).
So this sounds like complete crap to me. So I googled it. Yep, complete crap.
https://jlb.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1189/jlb.1MA0816-338R [wiley.com]
so this enzyme is indeed needed for cell replication, and some cells - like your immune system - don't survive without it.
so, let's put conspiracy hats on. here's a gene that makes an enzyme. but instead of a daily pill to kill the enzyme (not permanent), we have gene therapy (permanent) to do it. in tests removing this enzyme, the patien's tcells and bcells didn't develop normaly. So, this gives you AIDS.
Thanks Chinese dude.
>hopes to be able to test the method on primates next, but it would require a lot of funding
OH! I see what this is all about now - get some rich stupid private donors who want a cure for being old and fat.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by looorg on Thursday January 21 2021, @10:36PM
The question I always wonder about when I see these news about longer life is that I always wonder what kind of life. I'm all for living longer as long as I can remain myself, active and not in agonizing pain. If it's just living longer but I'll be somehow crippled or in constant pain then it's not really all that interesting. I gather this is somewhat hard to gather from mice, they are so inconsiderate that they won't tell us how those extra 25% was for them -- that said it probably wasn't all that great since they are labrats.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 21 2021, @10:53PM
China is already breeding better mice!
(Score: 5, Funny) by Gaaark on Thursday January 21 2021, @11:11PM
The U.S. has a mouse that will NEVER die: Mickey Mouse will have a copyright life FOREVER!
;)
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---