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Category: life extension – Page 335

Old human cells return to a more youthful and vigorous state after being induced to briefly express a panel of proteins involved in embryonic development, according to a new study by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine.

The researchers also found that elderly mice regained youthful strength after their existing muscle stem were subjected to the rejuvenating treatment and transplanted back into their bodies.

The proteins, known as Yamanaka factors, are commonly used to transform an into what are known as induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPS cells. Induced can become nearly any type of cell in the body, regardless of the cell from which they originated. They’ve become important in regenerative medicine and drug discovery.

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The hydra is named after the serpent monster from Greek myth, which regrows two heads each time one is cut off. But freshwater hydras have an even more impressive regenerating ability: an entire hydra can regrow from a small piece of tissue in only a few days.

Biologists are particularly excited by this ability, since many of the networks involved in the healing process developed early in the process of evolution, meaning that they are shared among many animals, including humans.

“In other organisms, like humans, once our brain is injured, we have difficulty recovering because the brain lacks the kind of regenerative abilities we see in hydra,” said researcher Abby Primack.

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He is a life extension proponent. Most recently he had stem cell treatments.

https://r.search.aol.com/…/…/RS=z6jNC56Uy1xYc8k56jUUir9YRk0

William Shatner, who played the iconic Captain James Tiberius Kirk in Star Trek: The Original Series and seven Star Trek films, turns 89 years young today.

Born on March 22, 1931 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, William Shatner began his career as a Shakespearean stage performer in Stratford, Canada and on Broadway in New York City in the early 1950’s. Though his first appearance in cinema was that of a minor role in the 1951 Canadian film The Butler’s Night Off, Shatner’s prominence in film did not arrive until his second debut in 1958 as Alexey Karamazov in The Brothers Karamazov, a film adaptation of one of Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s literary works. During that time, he played a major role as Jim Whitely in The Glass Eye, an episode form the third season of the television series Alfred Hitchcock Presents. In 1959, William Shatner performed on stage in Broadway once again as Lomax in The World of Suzie Wong; his outstanding performance was received very well by critics, which earned him greater repute in the theatrical and film community.

Continue reading “Star Trek’s William Shatner Celebrates His 89th Birthday” | >

Andrew Sinclair does not have anything to lose. He takes a number of drugs including the anti-diabetic medication metformin, given to him by his son David, the renowned Australian biologist and professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School, to combat the ill-effects of ageing.

David Sinclair says his father remains in good health, travelling, socialising and exercising with the energy of a man far younger than his 80 years.

David Sinclair will discuss why ageing should be classified as a disease at the Festival of Dangerous Ideas.

Renowned Australian scientist David Sinclair says we have all the information to be young again, “if we can just flip the switch”.

Continue reading “Flipping the switch on the ageing process” | >

Dinorah Delfin has unleashed another exceptional edition of Immortalist Magazine. One of the best aspects is the dueling articles on the future states of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI).

Daniel Faggella constructs another dismal, dreary, depressing, destruction of hope for a benevolent artificial general intelligence. Emphasis on depressing. He has a wonderful way of creating a series of logical roadblocks to any optimism that there is a future with a compassionate artificial general intelligence. But he seems to be arguing against a contention that probably nobody believes in. He is arguing that there is no certainty that an artificial general intelligence will be benevolent. Most thinking humanoids are going to agree with that perspective. As he points out forcefully in his concluding and strongest rebuttal: no one knows what the future holds.

But no one is looking for absolute certainty in the far future. Transhumanists in general are looking for a path forward to an existence full of superhappiness, superintelligence and superlongevity.

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Multiple lines of evidence show that the anti-aging and cognition-enhancing protein Klotho fosters neuronal survival, increases the anti-oxidative stress defense, and promotes remyelination of demyelinated axons. Thus, upregulation of the Klotho gene can potentially alleviate the symptoms and/or prevent the progression of age-associated neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease and demyelinating diseases such as multiple sclerosis. Here we used a CRISPR-dCas9 complex to investigate single-guide RNA (sgRNA) targeting the Klotho promoter region for efficient transcriptional activation of the Klotho gene. We tested the sgRNAs within the — 1 to — 300 bp of the Klotho promoter region and identified two sgRNAs that can effectively enhance Klotho gene transcription. We examined the transcriptional activation of the Klotho gene using three different systems: a Firefly luciferase (FLuc) and NanoLuc luciferase (NLuc) coincidence reporter system, a NLuc knock-in in Klotho 3’-UTR using CRISPR genomic editing, and two human cell lines: neuronal SY5Y cells and kidney HK-2 cells that express Klotho endogenously. The two sgRNAs enhanced Klotho expression at both the gene and protein levels. Our results show the feasibility of gene therapy for targeting Klotho using CRISPR technology. Enhancing Klotho levels has a therapeutic potential for increasing cognition and treating age-associated neurodegenerative, demyelinating and other diseases, such as chronic kidney disease and cancer.

Keywords: Alzheimer’s disease; Cancer; Chronic kidney disease; Multiple sclerosis; Myelin; Neuroprotection.

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The mission of healthy life extension, or healthy longevity promotion, raises a broad variety of questions and tasks, relating to science and technology, individual and communal ethics, and public policy, especially health and science policy. Despite the wide variety, the related questions may be classified into three groups. The first group of questions concerns the feasibility of the accomplishment of life extension. Is it theoretically and technologically possible? What are our grounds for optimism? What are the means to ensure that the life extension will be healthy life extension? The second group concerns the desirability of the accomplishment of life extension for the individual and the society, provided it will become some day possible through scientific intervention.

How will then life extension affect the perception of personhood? How will it affect the availability of resources for the population? Yet, the third and final group can be termed normative. What actions should we take? Assuming that life extension is scientifically possible and socially desirable, and that its implications are either demonstrably positive or, in case of a negative forecast, they are amenable – what practical implications should these determinations have for public policy, in particular health policy and research policy, in a democratic society? Should we pursue the goal of life extension? If yes, then how? How can we make it an individual and social priority? Given the rapid population aging and the increasing incidence and burden of age-related diseases, on the pessimistic side, and the rapid development of medical technologies, on the optimistic side, these become vital questions of social responsibility. And indeed, these questions are often asked by almost any person thinking about the possibility of human life extension, its meaning for oneself, for the people in one’s close circle, for the entire global community. Many of these questions are rather standard, and the answers to them are also often quite standard. Below some of those frequently asked questions and frequently given answers are given, with specific reference to the possibility and desirability of healthy human life extension, and the normative actions that can be undertaken, by the individual and the society, to achieve this goal.

Q: Is human life extension possible? Why do you think so?

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The authors draw attention to several randomized clinical studies in humans that have found that over the counter supplements such as n-acetylcysteine (NAC), which is used to treat acetaminophen poisoning and is also used as a mucus thinner to help reduce bronchitis exacerbations, and elderberry extracts, have evidence for shortening the duration of influenza by about two to four days and reducing the severity of the infection. The authors also note several nutraceuticals such as spirulina, beta-glucan, glucosamine, and NAC have either been found to reduce the severity of infection or to cut the rate of death in half in animals infected with influenza. Furthermore, one clinical study in humans testing spirulina noted significant reductions in viral load in those infected with HIV.

In a compelling article in Progress in Cardiovascular Diseases, published by Elsevier, Mark McCarty of the Catalytic Longevity Foundation, San Diego, CA, USA, and James DiNicolantonio, PharmD, a cardiovascular research scientist at Saint Luke’s Mid America Heart Institute, Kansas City, MO, USA, propose that certain nutraceuticals may help provide relief to people infected with encapsulated RNA viruses such as influenza and coronavirus.

In the United States, influenza infects around 30 million people every year causing around 30,000 deaths. While there are medications approved for the treatment of influenza, they typically are costly, have side effects, and are not very effective. Additionally, vaccinations against influenza may only be effective in around 50 percent of those vaccinated. Thus, there is a need for safer and effective alternatives in those infected with influenza.

Over the past few months, a novel RNA coronavirus, now called COVID-19, has broken out in China and has spread to over two dozen countries and infected more than 76,000 people causing more than 2,000 deaths. This novel coronavirus is much more lethal than the typical flu, with a current mortality rate of about 2.92 percent. In other words, around 1 in 33 people who are infected with this novel coronavirus will die. Whereas the annual flu has a mortality rate of just 0.05 to 0.1 percent. This means that around 1 in 1,000 to 2,000 people infected with the annual flu will die. In other words, COVID-19 is around 30 to 60 times more lethal than the typical annual flu.

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Because of the central importance of tissue repair to all organisms, Neves assumed that many of the mechanisms behind it would be shared among all animals. So she started looking at proteins produced by immune cells in the well-known animal model of the fruit fly.

She discovered that a poorly-understood protein known as MANF (mesencephalic astrocyte-derived neurotrophic factor) plays a crucial role in reducing inflammation in fruit flies. More importantly, she found that mice and humans also produce it, and its prevalence reduces in all the species as they age, suggesting it plays a key role in limiting age-related inflammation.

That prompted her to see if introducing MANF would boost the effectiveness of stem cell treatments in older animals. She used the protein in combination with a procedure that uses stem cells to replace degenerating photoreceptors in the retina of older mice and found it greatly improved the restoration of vision.

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