A tiny creature that’s sturdy enough to survive space may hold the key to human longevity, scientists have found in a new study.
Liz Parrish, CEO of BioViva Science, is the world’s most genetically modified person. She took a telomere-restoring gene therapy in 2015 alongside follistatin, making her the first person to take gene therapy to treat biological aging.
But why telomeres?
While there are other ways to measure and address the aging process, lengthening telomeres is an especially promising avenue.
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While most of us can expect to live to around 80, some people defy expectations and live to be over 100. In places such as Okinawa, Japan and Sardinia, Italy, there are many centenarians.
The oldest person in history – a French woman named Jeanne Calment – lived to 122. When she was born in 1,875, the average life expectancy was roughly 43.
But just how long could a human actually live? It’s a question people have been asking for centuries. While average life expectancy (the number of years a person can expect to live) is relatively easy to calculate, maximum lifespan estimates (the greatest age a human could possibly reach) are much harder to make. Previous studies have placed this limit close to 140 years of age. But a more recent study proposes that the limit to human lifespan is closer to 150.
University of Wyoming researchers have gained further insight into how tardigrades survive extreme conditions and shown that proteins from the microscopic creatures expressed in human cells can slow down molecular processes.
This makes the tardigrade proteins potential candidates in technologies centered on slowing the aging process and in long-term storage of human cells.
The new study, published in the journal Protein Science, examines the mechanisms used by tardigrades to enter and exit from suspended animation when faced by environmental stress. Led by Senior Research Scientist Silvia Sanchez-Martinez in the lab of UW Department of Molecular Biology Assistant Professor Thomas Boothby, the research provides additional evidence that tardigrade proteins eventually could be used to make life-saving treatments available to people where refrigeration is not possible — and enhance storage of cell-based therapies, such as stem cells.
In a study published by Stanford University, old mice developed more youthful immune systems after treatment with an antibody targeting abnormal stem cells.
As we age, so too does our immune system. This decline, known as immunosenescence, makes us more susceptible to infections, chronic inflammation, and diseases like cancer.
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The effects of aging on the immune system
The aging immune system is associated with reduced lymphopoiesis, increased inflammation, and myeloid diseases due to alterations in self-renewing HSCs. During childhood, bal-HSCs predominate, thereby facilitating lymphopoiesis and adaptive immune responses.
Vidmantas Šakalys explains how laser technology is advancing bioprinting and opening up new possibilities in regenerative medicine.
Scientists say that long genes — which are more susceptible to DNA damage — might be a main cause of the body’s aging and could play a role in. the development of diseases like Alzheimer’s.
