Advanced technologies in the fight against aging

For a long time to work on aging it was considered unfashionable, because there was an idea that aging is involved a lot of different factors and aging - is a natural process, in which nothing is impossible to study.

Breakthrough in understanding the aging occurred when C. elegans model for the first time shown that there is a genetic component, when certain genes are knocked out, and worms (C.elegans) began to live longer. Then started the next phase of the study the biology of aging, when he began to seriously study the different molecular pathways, and how exactly it can be adjusted.

Now we pretty much know about the regulation on the level of metabolism, energy and so on. One of the areas of interest - is aging associated with aging of stem cells. Aging is a very complicated process, and stem cells - is one such process factors. According stem cell theory of aging, with age, the number of such cells is not reduced, but their activity decreases. Due to the reduction of the activity occurs and the aging of tissues. The practical question is whether we can somehow these old stem cells are reactivated, they again began to work as a youth. There are a number of experiments that show that this is indeed possible.

One of the fundamental experiment - an experiment with mice parabiosis when, during the experiment, scientists have linked the blood system of the old and young mice and then watched as the muscles are regenerated the old mouse. And it turned out that in this experiment, there is a rejuvenation of muscles in old mice. This suggests that the blood has some circulating factors which affect the activity of the aging process. Such experiments justify the need for the study of aging. In principle, progress in the identification of some regulatory pathways will be achieved in the future, and then, and in the development of drugs that will produce a rejuvenation of stem cells.

As far as I know, at the moment of some commercial products in this area does not yet exist, but at the same time, now very popular "among the people" different therapies using stem cells. The only problem - all of them in science is not have nothing. Basically it involved various charlatans whose actions usually end in tears. Although the idea of using stem cells for medical purposes is understandable and relevant to the inception of commercial products have to spend far too much research.

The most important thing that happens for the past 100 years - it is the prolongation of life by addressing the causes that reduce life abnormally. These reasons are primarily infectious diseases, trauma, oncology, in which the last 20 years achieved very great success.

But if you take the natural human life and our understanding of how to extend it, in this area we have great achievements. We want to make sure that people living to 100 and were 40-year-old, 30-year-old, that is, were in their prime. But such a goal contains a biological problem. Nature arranged for us so that we are up to a certain point, should be able to develop, we must be maintained plasticity, we need to grow the bones, the skull to grow. These changes can occur indefinitely, at some point, the maturation should take place. When a person becomes an adult, mature, it largely loses plasticity. And if the physical plasticity of us do not really care about the mental plasticity is extremely important. Beginning in 20-25 years, we begin to lose the ability to learn, and therefore, the ability to adapt to new conditions.

As a result, there is a question, and the age at which we had to stay: in 40-50 years, when we have lost the ability to plastically change, or in 15-20 years, when we were still able to learn very well, but still almost nothing has been able to ?

There are many research groups who are trying to understand the mechanisms of why people with age lose certain abilities. But most of all we know about these processes in the field of immunology. The immune system - is a system that over the years, almost lost, since, apparently, exhausted reserves of stem cells. But to say that there are established facts straight, what changes in the immune system and has a mechanism of aging, I can not. We know dozens of causes of aging, including the exhaustion of stem cells - progenitor cells of other tissues, but not about any of them, we can not say that it is definitely leading. It is very successful in the past decade is the fight against tumors. It turned out that in fact a fantastic variety of tumors. Every year we learn more that leukemia - this is not one disease, but several hundred very different diseases of the blood. And the main progress of oncology today is that we have come to understand that different leukemia should be treated differently. As a result of this understanding today the likelihood of a cure of the disease can be as high as 90%. We continue to use medicines that were invented some time ago, but now do this more effectively we know more accurately diagnose and more accurately we are able to treat. The sooner we know the nature of the damage that has occurred in our native cells, the more likely we will learn to live more efficiently.

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The answer to the question posed in the title, in my opinion, is as follows: the greatest success in the fight against aging give the development, allowing to eliminate the causes of interruption of the natural aging process. First, we can try to greatly reduce the number of various accidents (road, probably in the lead) and other humanic disasters, and it will be a great success in extending life. Secondly, we can win many infectious diseases that are rampant mainly in underdeveloped countries, and it will also be a great success in extending life. Thirdly, we can greatly reduce mortality from cancer, which also give a great contribution to the prolongation of life. All these achievements would not affect the natural aging process. In the strongly developed countries such as Japan and Western European countries, life expectancy is 80 years or more. Many were living to 100. It is conceivable that this is an exemplary natural human lifespan. Do you now how much to move this border? I do not know such. And whether it is necessary to move? Debatable.

One Direction - is the extension of healthy life and get rid of the so-called diseases of old age. It is no secret that in addition to the common senile decay of the body, there are a whole bunch, which is characteristic for older people: diabetes, high blood pressure, various cardiac arrhythmias. And in these areas, so many possibilities. In fact, many diseases retirement age does not solved with medication or using medical technologies, but simply the prevention of a healthy lifestyle. In addition, there are now very serious tools for reprogramming cells, which make it possible to carry out the restoration of individual organs and all body systems, such as liver or kidney problems.

However, in clinics do not use these technologies, and the use of all kinds of stem cell treatments is not allowed Food and Drug the Administration of the United States, which is a very important criterion. As for the medical tests that recently in Japan were made experiments on the retina implant, it was officially given a positive result. But it should be understood that in this experiment were used relatively simple things: there are planting only one cell layer thick, which globally is easier than creating a three-dimensional, highly structured body. But given that many countries are now very intensively are studies, such as the research institute (CIRA) in Kyoto, led by Professor Yamanaka (Yamanaka), at Johns Hopkins University (USA), in the UCLA (USA) and others, I think that will soon be possible to transplant kidney and liver tissues. Highly structured bodies, such as the heart, will of course be made later. Most likely, in the near future we will be able to update the person "in parts", but it does not remove the fundamental problem of cell death as a result of the death of the pledged mechanism.

And here we come to the second direction. Recently, periodically there are reports that found a gene or group of genes responsible for longevity. But then it turns out that this is not so. Attempts to find and eliminate the genetic predetermination of death - the task is unsuccessful. By natural physiological threshold of a hundred-odd years, which marked the beginning of the XX century II Mechnikov ( "Etudes of optimism", Paris, February 7, 1907), I think humanity will approach quickly. But what will happen next - it is unclear. Individually, we can replace the authorities, but to keep the mind and nervous tissue to leave a person, we do not come up with mechanisms.

The most promising are the work of studying the difference in life expectancy between closely related species. As part of these studies, scientists are trying to answer the question: why do people get cancer or heart disease and die after 60-70 years, after 20 monkeys, and mice after 1 year? Why do mice live up to 3 years, and bats for more than 40 years? If we were apes, we have all learned people to understand why they live so long.

It is important that the maximum difference in life expectancy is evolving very rapidly over the last 30 million years of primate evolution highest life expectancy has increased by three times. So, if we give our mind a person to continue this evolutionary development, then in another 30 million years the maximum duration of a person's life will grow back in three times - up to 300 years! But why wait for 30 million years? If we unravel the evolutionary mechanism that controls this process, we will be able to live to 300 years or more tomorrow.

With the 50-ies of XX century was considered proven that the mechanism of aging - it is oxidation. In each cell mitochondria produce free radicals that oxidize and destroy our DNA, thus causing aging. But, as it turned out, after 60 years, this hypothesis was untenable.

In mice experiments were performed to block the process of oxidation, and it turned out that this mechanism does not work. Nevertheless, oxidation does come. Experiments done by increasing the oxidation level in mice times 500. It would seem that the mouse must die after a dose, but to the surprise of scientists, the aging of mice is not affected.

That is, it became obvious that there is oxidation, but this is not the main process. If we remove the remaining processes, in the end, perhaps a million years oxidation kill us. But it is a very slow process, it has little effect on the aging, at least in mice. However, now researchers are trying to figure out how to reduce the oxidation of the body, although it is unclear whether it will have an effect or not.

There are researchers who believe that people with age is changing the hormonal composition of the body, so we can trick our body by introducing into it the hormones related to the young age. They think that if our body will recover. This idea is the basis of: about a hundred years ago, it was shown that if the blood system to link the two mice - the old and the young, the old mouse rejuvenate.


This work forgotten, but about 10 years ago, this experiment was repeated at Stanford University, and it turned out that, indeed, judging by the molecular markers of aging, rejuvenates old mouse. If you take the plasma of a young man and pour it into human plasma older, most of all, the second person is really rejuvenate. I do not know whether it is used in practice, but in America carry out such work.

Nevertheless, it is an active ingredient in this process is still not known why in the experiments using the same technology as a thousand years ago - plasma transfusion. For the transfusion of plasma do not need any permission, because, in fact, the transfusion of plasma or blood - a traditional medical practice. But if you select the molecule that is responsible for this process, in order to apply it, it will be necessary to obtain permission. That is, it must be tested, do a lot of different experiments. And then such a process will not be a blood transfusion, and it can be taken as a pill, inject into the blood and rejuvenate. But the fact is that no one knows the mechanism.