Anti-aging research is one of the most rapidly developing areas of science and medicine today.
Photo: Shutterstock
Anti-aging research is one of the most rapidly developing areas of science and medicine today. The fact that it is possible to rejuvenate cells, practically eliminating their age and growing young organs, is already a reality. The future that has arrived. Expert in biomedical technologies, candidate of biological sciences, senior researcher of the laboratory for the study of aging at Harvard Medical School and Moscow State University, Alexander Tyshkovsky, speaking at the webinar, talked about simple and affordable rejuvenation methods which definitely work.
WHERE IS THE LIMIT OF HUMAN LIFE?
Aging is the process of changes in our body, in which the probability of getting sick and dying increases with age. In fact, the aging mechanism begins from the moment the embryo is formed, the scientist recalls. And as we age, errors and damage accumulate in our DNA. The average life expectancy of a person with a successful evolution is 73 years (women here are luckier thanks to the protective effect of the hormone estradiol).
However, let’s imagine that aging could be stopped at, say, 30 years, then, under ideal conditions, mathematical calculations show that a person could live up to 1,250 years and even break the records of biblical centenarians.
The fact that it is possible to get closer to the optimal option for man in nature is shown to us by animals that have already “defeated aging.” These are naked mole rats (in captivity they live an unprecedented duration for small rodents, more than 30 years) or bowhead whales (they live more than 200 years) or sharks, which only reach puberty at 150 years and live up to 150 years. to 300 years. And among the people there are supercentenarians. Everyone has heard the example of the cheerful old woman Jeanne Kalman, 122 years old, who was lucky with genetics and could be active and fun even at the age of one hundred and twenty.
HOW TO BE YOUNGER?
In fact, there are only two ways to influence the aging process. Firstly, it can slow down the appearance of DNA damage, and secondly, from time to time it can simply get rid of cells in which various damage and debris have already accumulated.
Today’s most proven scientific way to slow down the biological clock is a low-calorie diet, which has been shown to work in living organisms from monkeys to yeast. Experiments on low-calorie nutrition in humans have shown that, over a two-year horizon, such a diet has been shown to reduce blood pressure and bad cholesterol, which has a positive effect on life expectancy.
Caloric restriction helps avoid obesity and excess fat is a major risk factor that causes systemic inflammation, cardiovascular diseases, type 2 diabetes, etc.
In fact, diet activates the so-called survival system at the cellular level.
– In the cell we have an insulin signaling pathway, a way of recognizing nutrients. It is caused by insulin, a hormone released in response to ingesting sugar. Oddly enough, when a cell has a lot of food, it turns off the damage repair system through the insulin signaling pathway, says Alexander Tyshkovsky. “And when there is no insulin, on the contrary, when we are hungry or we have not eaten enough, the cell begins to repair its damage.
THINK LIKE EVOLUTION
Why do we need a survival system? To understand evolution you have to think as evolution, says the scientist. When everything is good, safe and there is food, the logical evolutionary strategy in this case is to reproduce if you are already an adult, store food for the “hunger time” and grow if you are not yet an adult.
“At the same time, if you left offspring, then it is not so important how long you live; here and now the most important thing is to leave offspring,” says Alexander Tyshkovsky. – So, at the cellular level, damage repair takes a backseat. And when there is no food and you are hungry, what can you do? There is nothing to store, it is difficult to grow, it becomes harmful to reproduce, because you cannot feed yourself or raise offspring. So there is only one way: survive. At the same time, the body’s cells activate the DNA damage repair system, the antioxidant system is also activated, which reduces oxidative stress (which ages cells and tissues, editor’s note), blood cells are activated. autophagy, which combat internal damage, etc. .
Expert in biomedical technologies, candidate of biological sciences, senior researcher of the laboratory for the study of aging at Harvard Medical School and Moscow State University, Alexander Tyshkovsky
Photo: Personal page of the hero of the publication on the social network.
IS THERE ANY MEDICATION FOR OLD AGE?
Yes and no. Three independent laboratories in the world are testing existing drugs that could theoretically prolong life, says the scientist.
– For example, the anti-aging properties of rapamycin are being studied, an immunosuppressant that reduces the immune response in transplants so that donor organs are not rejected. It works through the insulin signaling pathway, which means the way it works is similar to that of diet. In experiments with mice, the results are not bad. But what works in small animals doesn’t always work in humans.
Over many years of testing, the positive effect of slowing down aging has been proven:
– metformin, used to treat type 2 diabetes and reduce blood sugar levels;
– amino acid glycine, activates autophagy when cells digest the damage accumulated in them;
– acarbose, this substance prevents starch from breaking down in the intestines, as a result: less sugar enters the blood and less insulin is produced;
– protandim, a mixture of five plant extracts, including green tea extract.
It is true that none of these substances can be used to prevent aging. Since aging is not recognized as a disease in the WHO classification, there is only the concept of diseases associated with aging. This means that it will not yet be possible to carry out clinical trials in terms of prevention of aging, neither with existing drugs nor with new ones.
TEA AND COFFEE INSTEAD OF REJUVENATING APPLES
Among the simplest but effective ways to prolong life, scientists have discovered the benefits of green tea and coffee.
Green tea contains polyphenols that trigger the hormesis effect in our body, where short-term stress is beneficial because it activates the survival system. That is, polyphenols are actually “weak poisons”, because in order to harm yourself with green tea, you still have to try. However, the cell perceives polyphenols as stress factors and activates the survival system. Experiments have shown that green tea reduces overall mortality by 40 to 50 percent in people with heart disease and type 2 diabetes.
“This is essentially the same case when we drink for breakfast a substance that causes us stress at the cellular level, but at the same time is good for our health,” says Alexander Tyshkovsky.
Polyphenols activate damage repair mechanisms within cells and this reduces overall mortality and death from certain diseases, such as type 2 diabetes.
In addition, green tea reduces the risk of developing Parkinson’s disease and senile dementia, which is important because there are still no effective drugs for neurodegenerative diseases.
Among the simplest but effective ways to prolong life, scientists have discovered the benefits of green tea and coffee.
Photo: Shutterstock
The situation with coffee is not worse. Coffee, like green tea, contains polyphenols that help. In addition, it contains caffeine, which also activates the damage repair system at the cellular level. It is true that it is important not to overdo it with coffee and it is better not to drink this drink after lunch, because caffeine reduces the production of melatonin, the sleep hormone, and this can cause difficulties in falling asleep.
Additionally, metabolic intolerance to coffee is possible. If so, a genetic test will help identify it. Well, at the everyday level, coffee intolerance can manifest itself in such a way that after a cup of hot black drink you become not cheerful, but lethargic and have a headache.
THE FUTURE IS NOW
Prolonging life is now possible at the level of rejuvenation of individual organs. For example, a unique experiment was recently carried out with the heart. As we age, our motor receives less blood supply and scientists added a certain gene to the heart tissue that improves the growth of heart vessels. It really helps prolong life.
“You can reach a very high level – to engage in the transplantation of young organs,” says Alexander Tyshkovsky.
Reversing aging, almost like in the story of the cinematic hero Benjamin Button, who became younger over the years, is possible with the help of induced pluripotent stem cell technology.
“In short,” says the scientist, “adult cells are taken, for example fibroblasts (skin cells), and by acting on them with a certain cocktail of active substances, their age can be reversed, transferring them to an embryonic state. .” Then, from these embryonic cells you can obtain any cell from any organ: heart muscle, neurons, fat cells, whatever.
It turns out that scientists have actually learned how to reverse aging, which opens up enormous perspectives.
– For example, people with Parkinson’s disease can now be helped. People with this disease begin to die from certain neurons in the brain, actually having fewer cells. So, for these patients, new neurons can be grown from skin cells and transplanted into the brain. And recently such work was carried out that slowed down the progress of the disease, says Alexander Tyshkovsky.
Another surprising example, a woman who was losing her sight managed to grow a cornea this way.
You can go even further and use such young cells to create complete organs.
– This is advanced science, as they say, on the edge of the knife. Scientists, for example, managed to print a heart on a 3D printer, says Alexander Tyshkovsky. – A biopsy of adipose tissue was taken from the patient, liposuction was performed and then the fat cells were converted to an embryonic state and heart muscle cells and blood vessel walls were grown from them. The heart was then printed layer by layer. Small, the size of a rabbit, that is, it is a prototype of a heart that could be tested for a transplant. Therefore, the technology has proven to be viable. In this way, heart valves are already being actively printed.
Of course, we can print a heart ourselves, but we can ask Mother Nature to do the same, says the scientist.
Modern science is getting closer to the possibility of growing organs inside other animals. So, for example, you can take a pig embryo and deactivate a certain gene in it, for example the one needed for the formation of the pancreas. What will happen? This embryo can become a pig with all the organs except the pancreas. But the pig will not survive like this. However, if induced pluripotent human stem cells are implanted into the modified embryo, the adult pig’s pancreas will be formed from human cells. It can be removed surgically and transplanted into a person. To date, we have been able to grow rat pancreas in mice and mouse organs in rats.
– That is, this method of prolonging life is already working. There are also options where attempts are made to grow human organs in monkeys – macaques. The work is already underway and it is a very promising area,” says Alexander Tyshkovsky. – So, perhaps you and I will witness the first clinical trials of anti-aging drugs in humans and we ourselves will be able to test all those developments that are already working successfully in animals.
