Academician Vladimir Skulachev told RIA Novosti about why Moscow University created Russia's first colony of Cape naked mole rats, “immortal” rodents, and why aging and death are an “useless” evolutionary program for us that can and should be turned off.
The naked mole rat (Heterocephalus glaber) is a unique mammal with many amazing properties. This hairless underground rodent is about the size of a mouse and weighs 30-50 grams in eastern Africa. In the 1970s, scientists discovered that these creatures live unusually long for their size, dozens of times over normal, and are not susceptible to cancer. In addition, diggers practically do not feel pain and do not react to skin irritation when in contact with caustic acids.
Today Moscow State University. M. V. Lomonosov announced that the first colony of Cape naked mole rats of 25 individuals was created within its walls, on the basis of which a group of biologists led by Academician Vladimir Skulachev, director of the A. N. Belozersky Moscow State University in Moscow, will study the secrets of their longevity, and will try to transfer them to the human population. Scientists hope that in a year their number will increase 10 times, and in October another colony of mole rats may appear at Moscow State University. You can watch the diggers using a webcam installed in their colony.
As Skulachev says, he is a supporter of the August Weismann theory, which postulates that death and aging are not random processes of decrepit body tissue and cell dying, but a clear evolutionary program aimed at making old organisms give way to new generations of living beings.
“Old age and aging were specially“invented”by biological evolution to accelerate them. Once living creatures did not age, and then they began to age in order to evolve faster. This suggests the possibility of the existence of animals in which this system is broken. If Weisman is right, then we need to find a medicine that will reverse aging and make us immortal,”the scientist notes.
Diggers, according to Skulachev, are unique creatures that managed to "remove" this program from their genome in the course of evolution due to three factors - an unusually long life, the special social structure of their families and the absence of natural enemies.
The "removal" of the aging program from the genome of the mole rats, as the scientist notes, led to the development of neoteny among the mole rats - figuratively speaking, the mole rats “do not grow up” and retain their childlike traits throughout their life. According to Skulachev, his group was able to identify 43 signs of neoteny in the anatomy, biochemistry and brain function of mole rats, which are absent in rats and other rodents.
This discovery, as the biologist notes, is especially interesting in the context of human acquisition of immortality. Neotenia, as the scientist noted, is a characteristic feature of a person - for example, the shape of our skull and the whole appearance change little as the body grows. On the other hand, baby monkeys look more like humans than monkeys.
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Humans live about twice as long as chimpanzees, despite similar size and mass, which may be due to neoteny and associated longevity. On the other hand, we do not yet have a super-long life and potential immortality, like diggers. As Skulachev explains, this can be explained by the fact that the species Homo sapiens has existed for only 200 thousand years, while diggers have evolved for more than a million years. Their study, the scientist hopes, will help us understand how we can "turn off" the death program and achieve biological immortality.
- Vladimir Petrovich, in addition to Moscow State University, diggers are actively studied by Vadim Gladyshev's laboratory at Harvard University, whose representatives in recent years have deciphered the genome of these animals and discovered a number of unusual features of their anatomy. Do you keep in touch with them and are your experiences changing?
- Yes, we cooperate with Gladyshev, we quote each other in our works. In fact, Gladyshev found several of the 43 signs I discovered, only he did not recognize them as neoteny. Now we have jointly applied for a grant at the Russian Science Foundation, found employees and rooms where we will conduct experiments. We have passed the first stage, and now this issue is being decided by the ministry, and we hope to receive approval.
This discovery, as the biologist notes, is especially interesting in the context of human acquisition of immortality. Neotenia, as the scientist noted, is a characteristic feature of a person - for example, the shape of our skull and the whole appearance change little as the body grows. On the other hand, baby monkeys look more like humans than monkeys.
Humans live about twice as long as chimpanzees, despite similar size and mass, which may be due to neoteny and associated longevity. On the other hand, we do not yet have a super-long life and potential immortality, like diggers. As Skulachev explains, this can be explained by the fact that the species Homo sapiens has existed for only 200 thousand years, while diggers have evolved for more than a million years. Their study, the scientist hopes, will help us understand how we can "turn off" the death program and achieve biological immortality.
- Vladimir Petrovich, in addition to Moscow State University, diggers are actively studied by Vadim Gladyshev's laboratory at Harvard University, whose representatives in recent years have deciphered the genome of these animals and discovered a number of unusual features of their anatomy. Do you keep in touch with them and are your experiences changing?
- Yes, we cooperate with Gladyshev, we quote each other in our works. In fact, Gladyshev found several of the 43 signs I discovered, only he did not recognize them as neoteny. Now we have jointly applied for a grant at the Russian Science Foundation, found employees and rooms where we will conduct experiments. We have passed the first stage, and now this issue is being decided by the ministry, and we hope to receive approval.
- Another group of scientists with the participation of Russian biologists discovered three years ago a potential mechanism for protecting mole rats from cancer - the "heavy" molecules of hyaluronic acids. Are you or will you experiment with this acid while working with diggers?
- It is not really clear yet whether this mechanism really works - in repeated experiments it has not yet been possible to achieve this result. I have great respect for Andrei Seluyanov and his colleagues, but we need to wait for confirmation, which, according to rumors, will most likely not be.
- Western scientists have repeatedly suggested that the longevity of the mole rats may be due to the fact that they live in an environment where there is very little food and where there are simply no "extra" calories. Will you conduct experiments on diet restriction among mole rats?
- No, this is complete nonsense. This is not typical for diggers. It is necessary to separate things. Diet restriction does prolong life, as has been proven in experiments ranging from single-celled yeast to humans. For all these cases, re-validated papers were published.
On the other hand, we, and the Germans, other biologists feed the diggers to the limit, without limiting them in anything. And in such conditions, diggers have been living for more than 36 years, and do not think of dying. So you can see that the situation is different.
- Recently, biologists from the United States have shown that some worms can almost double their life, by refusing to reproduce and going into the so-called Dauer stage of development. Considering the social structure of the colonies of mole rats, where only one female reproduces, can we say that something similar is happening in them?
- No, that's not entirely true. An animal in a Dauer state can be compared to a person who is offended by the whole world, shrinks and stops actively responding to the outside world. This state is, in fact, semi-existence and vegetation. It may be that recently discovered Greenland sharks, living for 400 years, are in this state.
If you look at the diggers even briefly, you can immediately see that they are not in this state. They are very active creatures, they are amazingly active, watch how they run around their manholes and rooms in our nursery. Therefore, no, one cannot say that their longevity is due to the transition to such a "semi-existence".
My colleagues came up with such a comic explanation for the longevity of the diggers and why subordinate females live as long as the queen of the colony - each of them dreams of becoming a mother, and are waiting for the current head of the family to retire and this can happen.