Do you feel it? This body of yours is slowly crumbling. We all age, and aging leads to diseases that ultimately kill most of us. Unsurprisingly, so much research has gone into creating an antidote for old age. The race between anti-aging drug makers is in full swing. But will it lead to the expected results? And if so, will these drugs be affordable for everyone, not just the richest?
If we come up with a way to slow down, stop, or even reverse the aging process, we can potentially protect people from cancer, heart disease, or Alzheimer's. The idea is to extend the "healthy life", to increase the number of years a healthy person enjoys. Extra birthdays are the cherry on top.
Once upon a time, philosophers could only imagine possible incarnations of eternal youth, but today scientists believe that there are many suitable options for research. But can everyone drink from the goblet? Will eternal youth be available to everyone or only to the rich?
Take, for example, the young blood plasma theory. The idea is that there is something in the blood of people under the age of 25 that keeps them young, even though we don't yet know what exactly.
Older mice, which were injected with the plasma of young mice, looked like they were rejuvenated - they became healthier, more active and showed fewer signs of aging. There is also surprising evidence that people who receive blood transfusions from 25-year-olds do better than those who receive blood from older donors.
Scientists around the world have begun experimenting with blood plasma transfusions to treat age-related diseases, but Jesse Karmazin takes a different approach. His company Ambrosia, based in Monterey, California, is offering it to anyone who wants to pay $ 8,000.
Karmazin hopes to treat 600 people and record their health before and after the transfusion. Ambrosia has signed 40 people so far and has treated 20 of them. "They are all over 35 and in relatively good health," he says, although some have chronic fatigue syndrome or Alzheimer's. Most of them are between the ages of 60 and 70 and have many reasons for staying young. Not everyone is rich, but many find the experiment worthwhile.
The people treated have already reported improvements in cognitive skills, muscle strength and energy, Karmazin says. But this is definitely not a rigorous clinical trial with a placebo, so we cannot be sure of any benefits yet.
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Karmazin says it is ethical to offer such treatment and that it is cheap and safe, which means it can quickly enter mainstream medicine. He buys plasma from blood banks, where it is often collected as a byproduct of blood prepared for transfusion.
Others still doubt and believe that other procedures will be more promising. They suggest enhancing the protectors of DNA known as telomeres. This idea is several decades old, and it is based on work on mice and other animals.
Telomeres are “caps” at the ends of chromosomes, and there is ample evidence linking their length to aging. The caps shrink whenever the cell divides until they are too short to protect the chromosomes from damage. This is followed by either normal cell death or a slow aging process that leads to inflammation and damage to surrounding cells.
Both animals and humans who start life with short telomeres tend to develop age-related diseases earlier and live shorter lives.
Genetic Roulette
Maria Blasco of the Spanish National Cancer Research Center in Madrid has spent most of her career studying telomeres. Several years ago, Blasco and her colleagues found a way to increase the telomeres of mice through gene therapy. As a result, the animals lived 40% longer.
This therapy is not yet ready because we do not know if it will work in humans. There are certain security concerns with such methods. Some researchers fear that maintaining telomeres may help damaged cells survive, leading to cancer. Although Blasco found out that her mice were not affected by this.
And that did not stop Liz Parrish from trying to apply this treatment on herself. Parrish, who is not a scientist, launched her own company, BioViva, near Seattle, to research and test new therapies that target the processes underlying aging. “We can't create preventive medicine if we don't fight biological aging,” she says.
After reviewing existing work, Parrish found the telomere augmentation work to be the most compelling. She says she worked with scientists to develop a modified version of Blanco's gene therapy - no details, of course - and injected herself last year. Along with this, she received another gene therapy to prevent muscle loss, which is believed to be another cause of age-related illness and weakness.
Parrish says she was not afraid to try the treatment. “My grandmothers died of Alzheimer's and my grandfather died of heart disease. I think if I don't do anything, I know what I'm going to die of."
Parrish says she feels "fantastic" after treatment, and her telomeres have grown the equivalent of 20 years in length. Of course, this in no way can be considered adequate research, so this year Parrish plans to begin clinical trials of his gene therapy outside the United States, in people with various age-related diseases.
Several other approaches to anti-aging seem promising as well. Aging cells that siphon off chemicals and damage their neighbors could be eliminated, either stopped or killed. One team is investigating the use of heavy fats - named for the heavy isotope of hydrogen - to protect cells from the wear and tear associated with aging. Others are studying the diabetic drug metmorphine.
Some people are already starting to take various supplements, believing that they can prevent aging. Unfortunately, even those with little evidence of their benefits are probably not helping themselves with the small doses commonly taken, says John Ramunas of Stanford University in California.
“I take a lot of supplements because I'm curious,” he says. "But the first thing that can definitely protect your telomeres is exercise."
In fact, we can significantly prolong our own health without any anti-aging drugs, says Craig Venter, who recently launched Human Longevity Inc (HLI) to offer clients personalized health plans. The most popular $ 25,000 package sequences your genome and microbiome, includes scans, blood tests and more.
Venter wants to help people determine which diseases they are susceptible to, which ones are already developing, and which are easiest to prevent and treat. “These are usually healthy people, but we found that 40% of those who come to see have serious health problems,” he says. His own results prompted him to lose weight. "I have lost 15 kilograms since I learned about my metabolic state."
Venter believes that a complete medical examination and personalized health plans will be more beneficial than any anti-aging treatment. “I don't think we need a magic elixir,” he says.
The vast amount of data that the HLI collects cannot be collected in a hospital, and most people cannot afford such health checks. The increase in life expectancy in rich countries shows that money is already buying you more on earth, so only an inexpensive solution will make longevity available to everyone. Until then, your best options are boring old diet and exercise.
ILYA KHEL
