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Category: life extension – Page 601

Aubrey’s trump cards

Aubrey de Grey’s famous ‘general answers’ to all concerns about rejuvenation.

Biogerontologist Aubrey de Grey, the father of SENS, always likes to answer to all objections to/concerns about rejuvenation with two general arguments. I think it is actually worth taking the trouble to answer each objection separately (which I did), but Aubrey’s answers are very good as well. I will discuss them here and add my own considerations. (If you’re interested in Aubrey’s pure thoughts, unpolluted by mine, you might want to try this short book.)

Elliott Small – AgeMeter The Functional Aging Biomarker System

Chronological age has been typically used as a way to gauge how someone is aging, however this is a poor measure indeed. People tend to age at different rates due to a variety of reasons, environment, diet, diseases in earlier life, stress, exercise and lifestyle all play a role in how a person ages.

Clearly a better way to measure aging is needed if we are to accurately assess how someone is aging for the purposes of health monitoring and research. One way to do this is to use functional aging as a way to determine how someone is aging.

Functional aging is defined as a combination of the chronological, physiological, mental, and emotional ages of a person that give an overall measure of their rate of aging.

A Son’s Race to Give His Dying Father Artificial Immortality

So I am anxious to explain the idea to my parents. The purpose of the Dadbot, I tell them, would simply be to share my father’s life story in a dynamic way. Given the limits of current technology and my own inexperience as a programmer, the bot will never be more than a shadow of my real dad. That said, I would want the bot to communicate in his distinctive manner and convey at least some sense of his personality. “What do you think?” I ask.

For months, he recorded his dying father’s life story. Then he used it to re-create his dad as an AI.

AgeMeter: Physiological Biomarkers to Determine Functional Age

Today Lifespan.io / Life Extension Advocacy Foundation has launched the fifth research project since we began 1.5 years ago. We are working with the Centers for Age Control Inc who plan to develop a multiple aging biomarker system to aid clinical research, healthcare providers and enthusiasts.

For more details check out the press release here: http://www.leafscience.org/introducing-agemeter/

Developing a diagnostic system to measure human functional age in comparison to chronological age, and assist in the assessment of anti-aging therapeutics.

Altering Microglia Types to Combat Degenerative Eye Diseases

Tweaking the types of microglia to favour a healing type over an inflammatory type has been the focus of a number of recent studies. This time the tremedous regenerative ability of zebrafish is the focus of research.

The evidence that the immune system, and in particular the various types of tissue resident macrophages play an important role in the regeneration of tissue continues to mount up.

The difference in the behaviour of these macrophages varies between species and may significantly contribute to the differences in regenerative capacity observed between slow regenerative species like mice and humans and species capable of robust rejuvenation such as salamanders and zebrafish. The latter two species being able to regenerate lost limbs and organs and the former two being far more limited.

There has been considerable interest recently in adjusting macrophage populations and types in order to encourage healing which we have talked about in articles here, here and here. Today we are going to have a look at some related research again dealing with altering types of tissue resident macrophages.

Scientists reverse ageing in mammals and predict human trials within 10 years

Salk Institute. 4 genes.

A n end to grey hair and crows-feet could be just 10 years away after scientists showed it is possible to reverse ageing in animals.

Using a new technique which takes adult cells back to their embryonic form, US researchers at the Salk Institute in California, showed it was possible to reverse ageing in mice, allowing the animals to not only look younger, but live for 30 per cent longer.

The technique involves stimulating four genes which are particularly active during development in the womb. It was also found to work to turn the clock back on human skin cells in the lab, making them look and behave younger.

Altering Macrophage Types to Treat Parkinson’s

A new approach to Parkinson’s alters immune cells to favour healing.

As we reported in an article yesterday, researchers are becoming increasingly interested in the potential of changing the ratio of types of macrophages present in the body to facilitate tissue regeneration and healing.

This is a line of research that covers a number of topics, including aging, regeneration, tissue repair, and inflammation. Over the last year or so we have seen a number of publications focusing on altering populations of macrophages to elicit repair and regeneration of tissues, which is a positive sign that things are moving forward.

The balance between different types (known as polarizations) of macrophages is again the subject of another study, which we will discuss today[1]. This time the focus is on Parkinson’s disease and how changing the ratio of macrophage types could be a potential therapy for this devastating age-related disease.

Keith Comito introduces the Lifespan Heroes campaign and how we as a community can support the development of new therapies to treat age-related diseases for a healthier and longer life

Keith Comito introduces the Lifespan Heroes, a campaign to help support scientific progress, journalism and advocacy at the LEAF Foundation.

By becoming a Heroes patron you are helping us to create more content, exclusive interviews, the latest biotech news, livestream events and more.

Check out the campaign here: https://www.lifespan.io/campaigns/join-us-become-a-lifespan-hero/

Fisetin a Compound in Strawberries Slows Aging in Mice

Interesting results in mice but don’t jump on the bandwagon yet.

Fisetin is a naturally occurring plant polyphenol from the flavonoid group, similar to quercetin. It is present in many plants, where it acts as a colouring agent. It is also found in many fruits and vegetables, such as strawberries, apples, persimmons, onions, and cucumbers.

It has also been found to be a senolytic compound able to clear senescent cells, at least it does in vitro studies in a petri dish[1]. The clearance of dysfunctional senescent cells is one of the repair based approaches proposed by the SENS Research Foundation to prevent or reverse age-related diseases.

Before you jump on the bandwagon

We see this every time a new compound or supplement is in the news: people rush out to buy it before sufficient research has been done. We should be cautious here, and before we spend our hard-earned money on yet another supplement, we should be mindful that there is no evidence that fisetin has a senolytic effect in mice other than in cell cultures.