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Category: life extension – Page 496

Natasha Vita-More Joins the LEAF SAB

The LEAF Scientific Advisory Board has grown recently with the addition of Dr. Natasha Vita-More, who may be a familiar name to many of our readers. Natasha is an extremely active public figure and science advocate and educator, and we are very pleased to welcome her to the SAB.

Natasha is an author, humanitarian, and innovator whose work focuses on longevity and regenerative generations. As a motivational speaker, she focuses on causes and solutions while fostering meaningful acknowledgement of the works of other people who have aspired to identify human potential. She is called “An early adopter of revolutionary changes” (Wired, 2000) and “Advocates the ethical use of technology to expand human capacities” (Politico, 2017).

Natasha was the Lead Scientific Researcher on the Memory Project, which has created scientific breakthroughs involving the long-term memory of C.elegans in cryonics (2015). As a proponent for mitigating aging, Natasha introduced the seminal field of Human Enhancement for longevity in academics.

Can we stop aging? A conversation with biomedical gerontologist Aubrey de Grey

Today we’re going to talk to the godfather of longevity, Aubrey de Grey, in the most ironic of settings – a pub in London. Over a beer, Aubrey explains why he believes that many of the typical health practices, such as drinking a lot of water, are myths and what he has discovered about slowing down the aging process. He reckons that in as little as 17 years, aging will no longer be a concern, and he supports this radical standpoint with some fascinating research. He talks about the idea that health is an integral part of longevity and that the seven pillars of aging need to be addressed simultaneously.

A single combination gene therapy treats multiple age-related diseases

Human and animal longevity is directly bound to their health span. While previous studies have provided evidence supporting this connection, therapeutic implementation of this knowledge has been limited. Traditionally, diseases are researched and treated individually, which ignores the interconnectedness of age-related conditions, necessitates multiple treatments with unrelated substances, and increases the accumulative risk of side effects. In this study, we address and overcome this deadlock by creating adeno-associated virus (AAV)-based antiaging gene therapies for simultaneous treatment of several age-related diseases. We demonstrate the modular and extensible nature of combination gene therapy by testing therapeutic AAV cocktails that confront multiple diseases in a single treatment. We observed that 1 treatment comprising 2 AAV gene therapies was efficacious against all 4 diseases.

Comorbidity is common as age increases, and currently prescribed treatments often ignore the interconnectedness of the involved age-related diseases. The presence of any one such disease usually increases the risk of having others, and new approaches will be more effective at increasing an individual’s health span by taking this systems-level view into account. In this study, we developed gene therapies based on 3 longevity associated genes (fibroblast growth factor 21 [FGF21], αKlotho, soluble form of mouse transforming growth factor-β receptor 2 [sTGFβR2]) delivered using adeno-associated viruses and explored their ability to mitigate 4 age-related diseases: obesity, type II diabetes, heart failure, and renal failure.

Human Aging REVERSED In New Medical Breakthrough

Human aging has been reversed in a new medical breakthrough. John Iadarola, Brooke Thomas, and Greg Fahy break it down on The Damage Report. Follow The Damage Report on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheDamageReportTYT/

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“A small clinical trial, which was conducted by a team of researchers led by Dr. Greg Fahy, has shown for the first time in humans that reversing biological age may be possible.

The results of TRIIM are in.

Scientists extend mice lifespan 12%

Scientists successfully extended the average lifespan of mice by breeding them using embryonic stem cells with extra-long telomeres. The findings are significant because the researchers managed to extend lifespan without genetic modification, and they also shed light on the aging process and techniques that might someday slow it.

The study — published October 17 in Nature Communications — focuses on telomeres, which are stretches of DNA found at the end of chromosomes.

Because telomeres protect the genetic material inside chromosomes, they’ve been likened to the plastic tips on the ends of shoelaces. But telomeres have also been compared to bomb fuses, or “molecular clocks,” because they become shorter each time a cell divides, eventually shrinking so much that the cell dies or stops dividing. This shortening of our telomeres is associated with aging, cancer, and death.

Drug combination preserves cognitive function in mice with Alzheimer’s disease

A new study from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine shows that selectively removing senescent cells—cells that no longer divide—from brains with a form of Alzheimer’s disease can reduce brain damage and inflammation and slow the pace of cognitive decline. These findings, say researchers, add to evidence that senescent cells contribute to the damage caused by Alzheimer’s disease.

“Our results show that eliminating these cells may be a viable route to treat Alzheimer’s disease in humans,” says Mark Mattson, a professor of neuroscience at the School of Medicine and a senior investigator in the Laboratory of Neurosciences at the National Institute on Aging.

A report on the work was published April 1 in Nature Neuroscience.

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