Longevity Meme News and CommentaryThe latest news, commentary and opinions on healthy life extension and anti-aging concerns.tRNA and Your Mitochondria- June 24, 2008 Age-damaged mitochondria are age-damaged because they have lost genes necessary to produce proteins they need to function. This damage causes a good degree of age-related degeneration. There are a number of approaches here: fix the mitochondrial DNA, or provide the proteins some other way. New reseach suggests a novel way to accomplish the latter goal: "Scientists have determined that human cells are able to shift important gene products into their own mitochondria ... The gene products, known..http://www.longevitymeme.org/news/view_news_item.cfm?news_id=3738 Update on the PAPP-A Longevity Mutation- June 24, 2008 You'll recall that mice with the PAPP-A gene deleted live 30% longer in good health than their fellows. Following up, researchers are eliminating possibilities in the search for the mechanism of action: "We determined whether 18-month-old PAPP-A knock-out (KO) mice compared to their wild-type WT littermates have reduced energy expenditure andor altered glucose-insulin sensitivity. Food intake, and total energy expenditure and resting energy expenditure as measured by calorimetry, were not...http://www.longevitymeme.org/news/view_news_item.cfm?news_id=3739 More On Risk and Information-Theoretic Death- June 23, 2008 There's dead and then there's dead and definitely not coming back. Cold water drowning victims can be restored to life if treated quickly. Cryosuspended people can plausibly be restored to active health by medicine of the future. Life renewed isn't a possibility for the buried or cremated, however: the pattern of the brain, the definition of who they are, is lost. That last is information-theoretic death, wherein all the information that is you is gone. In a future in which aging is cured,...http://www.longevitymeme.org/news/view_news_item.cfm?news_id=3737 Stem Cells Versus Retinal Damage- June 23, 2008 Forbes notes that Pfizer "is funding the creation of a biotech company in San Diego called EyeCyte, which will develop stem-cell treatments for eye diseases. The company is based on work by Scripps Research Institute ophthalmologist Martin Friedlander, who has pinpointed bone- and blood-marrow stems cells that, in animal experiments, have a remarkable ability to target and repair damaged blood vessels in the eye. Abnormal blood vessels are a key problem in both diabetic eye disease and macular..http://www.longevitymeme.org/news/view_news_item.cfm?news_id=3736 Mitochondrial Uncouplers as CR Mimetics- June 20, 2008 If you somehow prevent your mitochondria from generating as much power as they were going to, making them less efficient, you lower the rate at which damaging reactive oxygen species are produced as a byproduct. This is important: "Calorie restriction is the most effective non-genetic intervention to enhance life span known to date. A major research interest has been the development of therapeutic strategies capable of promoting the beneficial results of this dietary regimen. In this sense, we..http://www.longevitymeme.org/news/view_news_item.cfm?news_id=3735 Chris Patil on Aging Research and the Media- June 20, 2008 Researcher Chris Patil comments on aging research and the media over at Ageing Research, which you can contrast to Aubrey de Grey's position on the same issue: "For academic biogerontologists, there are two related aims of aging research. The explicit, near-term goal is improving our understanding of the aging process at multiple levels - at the cellular and molecular levels ... The (occasionally) implicit, longer-term goal is to use this understanding to create interventions that will improve..http://www.longevitymeme.org/news/view_news_item.cfm?news_id=3734 Revisiting Double-Strand Breaks and Aging- June 19, 2008 From Ouroboros: "Do DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) have anything to do with aging We have some reason to believe that they do. ... Paul Hasty has written two recent reviews, critically evaluating the role of DNA DSBs in the aging process. In the first (written with colleagues Han Li and James Mitchell), the authors argue from genetic evidence that DSB repair pathways are intimately connected with aging, but that the relationship is distinct from the well-documented connection between aging and.http://www.longevitymeme.org/news/view_news_item.cfm?news_id=3733 Cancer Immunotherapy Progresses- June 19, 2008 The Telegraph brings news of progress in cancer immunotherapy. Interestingly, this was a comparatively "simple" immune therapy - no genetic or other manipulation of immune cells, but rather generating a very large number of them, far more than the body would generate on its own. This is a similar approach to the first autologous stem cell therapies: "A cancer patient has made a full recovery after being injected with billions of his own immune cells ... The 52-year-old, who was suffering from...http://www.longevitymeme.org/news/view_news_item.cfm?news_id=3732 Cellular Alchemy- June 18, 2008 In theory, given that every cell contains all our DNA and the necessary mechanisms for replication, it should be possible to generate any type of cell from any other type of cell using little more than the biotechnology of today. We just don't yet know how. Here, the Telegraph looks at small steps forward in manipulating cell state: "a new front has opened up in regenerative medicine: the direct conversion of one cell type, say a skin cell, into another, say a brain cell. ... pioneering work...http://www.longevitymeme.org/news/view_news_item.cfm?news_id=3731 Aiming to Regenerate Cartilage- June 18, 2008 Scientific American looks a some recent initiatives aimed at regrowing lost or damaged cartilage: "Scientists envision implanting nanotubes through small incisions (in, say, a knee) that a patient's own cartilage cells would colonize. The benefit is that the cartilage would grow more quickly and be stronger than if it was not supported by nanotubes - similar to the way that steel rebar is used to reinforce cement or concrete." This sort of technology platform has broader application once...http://www.longevitymeme.org/news/view_news_item.cfm?news_id=3730 |