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Scientists Stop Aging in Mice

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Thu, 2011-11-03 22:15

Dry Observer Dry Observer's picture

Scientists Stop Aging in Mice

Scientists have apparently dramatically reduced or halted aging in mice by speeding up the natural "flushing out" of senescent cells. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-15552964 Curious, though of course things don't map over exactly from mice to humans. Still, given the similarities (which is one reason we run medical tests on them) it's certainly worth noting.

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Fri, 2011-11-04 08:26

Re-Laborat Re-Laborat's picture

Re: Scientists Stop Aging in Mice

Given the way populations continue to increase in already starving regions, and the rest of the planet can't seem to get off its ass to attempt to feed what already exists, I can think of no more traumatic doomsday situation than a working anti-agathic at this time. Having said that, it looks like this is only affecting a few elements of the aging process. It's not going to do much about grey matter, although it might decrease issues with failures of regulation in brain chemistry due to aging. Also doesn't seem to do anything about telomere depletion. In much of the West (and probably much of the East as well, but I'm less familiar with those conditions) we're heading towards an enormous peak of retirees, with a population over retirement age that has never existed before. There are entire segments of the economy shifting towards caregiver modes to deal with this, pressure to produce more RNs, etc. That means that in addition to all the other goings-on, we're about to have a large chunk of the populace entering a state where they're no longer active contributors but do make active demands. Working anti-agathics cause all sorts of new issues. Movement of the retirement age, for example. Expectations on the elderly at odds with social and cultural behavior patterns. Increases in medical care costs to support the new treatment. If the treatment isn't made available to everybody, you're looking at all sorts of ugly new class-conflicts. The mortal vs. the not-so-mortal. The haves vs. the have-nots takes on a new and nastier facet.

Fri, 2011-11-04 09:02

Arenamontanus Arenamontanus's picture

Re: Scientists Stop Aging in Mice

Re-Laborat wrote:
Given the way populations continue to increase in already starving regions, and the rest of the planet can't seem to get off its ass to attempt to feed what already exists, I can think of no more traumatic doomsday situation than a working anti-agathic at this time.

Bah. You forget that ageing also leads to huge losses of human capital, besides the suffering. Not to mention that the trend is very strongly towards sub-replacement birth rates in a lot of places - we might need life extension soon to stave off a demographic winter. Starvation is all about dysfunctional governance and very little about number of people.

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Having said that, it looks like this is only affecting a few elements of the aging process. It's not going to do much about grey matter, although it might decrease issues with failures of regulation in brain chemistry due to aging. Also doesn't seem to do anything about telomere depletion.

The study worked with progeroid mice - they already have accelerated ageing, so the data is interesting but doubly different from healthy humans. You are right about the telomeres - this just fixes one of the problems, but that might already be very helpful.

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That means that in addition to all the other goings-on, we're about to have a large chunk of the populace entering a state where they're no longer active contributors but do make active demands.

If proper anti-ageing treatments start appearing retirement systems will change. Sure, people will grumble. But given that the systems are already nearly impossible to sustain economically and that the pension funds have quietly taken into account increasing mortality uncertainty, it will happen. Might be a bit of a generational battle, but it is pretty clear who will win in the long run. People decrying the problems caused by life extension should consider whether a life shortening would make us better off, collectively and individually. Morally speaking we should be willing to accept quite a lot of hardship in order to save lives.

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Fri, 2011-11-04 10:10

Extrasolar Angel Extrasolar Angel's picture

Re: Scientists Stop Aging in Mice

Re-Laborat wrote:
Given the way populations continue to increase in already starving regions, and the rest of the planet can't seem to get off its ass to attempt to feed what already exists, I can think of no more traumatic doomsday situation than a working anti-agathic at this time.

As noted, its a matter of dysfunctional government and logistics, not capability. You will probably see food printers(they are already on the market in some early stages) and vertical farming, along with bio-engineered crops. The food issue is a non-issue really.

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That means that in addition to all the other goings-on, we're about to have a large chunk of the populace entering a state where they're no longer active contributors but do make active demands.

Maybe in the West, but in much of the East no. In China as far as I know there is little pension for the elderly who have to depend on their families. But I don't think that with increased health and age, all of the elderly people will become inactive. Probably they will change their area of activity, but I can see them doing a lot of things that are productive for the society(even if it will be writing Wiki 2.0 articles or designing historical simulations for VR sims, or scenery for FPS games taking place in historical conflicts ;) )

Quote:
If the treatment isn't made available to everybody, you're looking at all sorts of ugly new class-conflicts. The mortal vs. the not-so-mortal. The haves vs. the have-nots takes on a new and nastier facet.

This is indeed a problem. And it covers a lot of other new possible technologies like nano-technology. The ideal situation would be to provide some basic improvement package supported by the government. Probably corporations and foundations will introduce their own packages as well. If the price of genetic engineering or its availability becomes very low and accessible than you could have anarchic groups giving them out as well(but this is a very far far vision and speculation). It would be probably very hard to resist calls to publicly fund global vaccination against AIDS or genetic engineering preventing cancer in humans...

Arenamontanus wrote:
People decrying the problems caused by life extension should consider whether a life shortening would make us better off, collectively and individually.

Heh, that's a good argument I didn't hear before. Have to remember it.

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[I]Raise your hands to the sky and break the chains. With transhumanism we can smash the matriarchy together.[/i]

Mon, 2011-11-07 14:35

nezumi.hebereke nezumi.hebereke's picture

Re: Scientists Stop Aging in Mice

Extrasolar Angel wrote:
In China as far as I know there is little pension for the elderly who have to depend on their families.

This is the case in most of the world, and a major driver for having so many kids in the first place (that and the high child mortality rate). If you took them aside and said 'you will never get old and feeble. You will never be unable to work your fields. And if you are injured, you will be cared for until you heal' (and you proved it), that population boom will drop. Kids aren't a 'fun thing' in China. They certainly aren't convenient, when each new mouth means you go to bed a little hungrier. If people here in the US can and do limit themselves to 2.4 children in response to our own better living, and even with the restrictions we live under, there's no reason to expect that anyone else won't as well (barring specific cultural influences).