Defeating the effects of time by finding a cure for aging has become the focus of multiple areas of research, bringing the possibilities of achieving immortality from fantasy into the realm of science.
The new possibilities offered by regenerative medicine illustrate how advancements in therapy on the molecular and cellular level may be able to extend the healthy human life span within the next 20 years.
“Finding a cure for aging is no longer a theoretical target or a fantasy, but on the way to becoming a practical target,” said Dr. Aubrey de Grey, chairman and chief science officer of the Methuselah Foundation, who spoke at a UCLA conference on June 27 about research aimed at finding a cure for aging. “Aging is the most universal degenerative condition and is now becoming the target of regenerative medicine.”
The human body is like a man-made machine, de Grey said. Damage accumulates in the first half of life and in the second half, pathology and disease begin to emerge. The common denominator of some of the most prevalent diseases, such as cancer, heart disease and Alzheimer’s is that they all seem to emerge in the later years of life. But if science intervenes in the process of aging and is able to slow down the rate at which damage is done, aging itself can be postponed or even cured, de Grey added.
“The body is a really complicated machine, but it’s still a machine, so its healthy lifespan can be extended indefinitely by sufficiently comprehensive repair and maintenance, just like simple man-made machines,” de Grey said.
To combat aging, Dr. de Grey has formulated a plan that he says may eventually bring about the indefinite postponement of age-related physical and mental decline. This method was named SENS (Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence) and it explores finding a cure for aging with an engineering strategy based on the direct repair and replacement of the damaged structures in the body. In this approach, the molecular and cellular repair directly targets the damage done by time and prevents eventual pathology indefinitely, de Grey said.
Gerontologists have already identified seven specific causes of age-related damage, all of which can be combated with new technologies such as gene therapy with the use of stem cells to repair tissue damage.
There are specific cells, termed embryonic stem cells, which are taken from human embryos and are capable, unlike adult stem cells, of morphing into any specific cell in the body, said Jerome Zack, a professor of medicine in the UCLA department of microbiology, immunology & molecular genetics.
“We can introduce new genes and correct defective genes in a lab and use these changed cells to correct defective tissues in patients,” Zack said.
Some of the most cutting-edge advances being assessed at UCLA is the discovery of new types of cells, termed pluripotent stem cells, which have the ability to be manipulated and have their genetic clocks reset so that they appear to act like embryonic stem cells.
“They are just starting to be investigated in humans,” Zack said. This ability to use our own body cells at any age and have them reprogrammed can open doors for replacing diseased human tissue, blood transplants, and the regeneration of the spinal cord without the controversy surrounding the use of human embryos, he added.
This is not a distant dream, de Grey said. It was only a year ago when researchers discovered this method, which allows any cell in the body to be manipulated at old age and reset to act as if it were 0 years old.
Over the past 10 years, there have been great advancements in the understanding of stem cells and their use in regenerative medicine, said Professor William Haseltine, chairman of Haseltine Global Health. It is not a stretch to imagine how much more progress will be made in the next 10 years.
“The replacement and regeneration of these cells can be the key to curing age,” Haseltine said.
There have already been animal models of life extension through use of molecular engineering, fixing the age-related damage at the level of the DNA. Andrzej Bartke, a professor of geriatric medicine at the Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, was able to protect the DNA of a mouse from age-related decay and kept the mouse alive for five years; the equivalent of extending a human life up to 200 years.
“If this technology is developed for humans, we can add 30 years to the healthy life span of people who are already middle aged,” de Grey said.
By mobilizing an effort worldwide to find a cure for aging, progress has been made in many multidisciplinary areas of research with an emphasis on gerontology and life extension.
There are multiple researchers around the world looking at different aspects of age-related degeneration in the body. They are finding that the damage done by age can be the culprit in diseases such as cancer and heart disease. For example, understanding age on the molecular level has led scientists to see changes occurring in our DNA as we age. In the second half of life, cells no longer divide as efficiently as when people are young. Cells begin expressing different proteins, dying and even start to grow uncontrollably, causing a host of different diseases, researchers said.
Aging is a complex phenomenon that affects many different systems, de Grey said, but understanding it and fixing the damage as it comes can potentially cure the harmful effects of aging and as a result, elongate the healthy human lifespan.
“This research will allow us to take a shot of what previous generations only dreamed of,” said Gregory Stock, director of the program on Medicine, Technology and Society at UCLA’s School of Medicine. With the start of the new millennium, technology has brought the human race to the forefront of technology with advances in space exploration and artificial intelligence, Stock added.
“Aging is where the real action will be, since it is dealing with our own bodies and getting old is an essential challenge in all of our lives,” Stock said. Uncovering ways to enhance human life and increase the healthy life span is the end goal of all medicine, and these new avenues of research must be pursued, he said.