To stop the aging of the body is an idea of the fix of many scientists, both our contemporaries and those who lived tens and hundreds of years ago. Eternal youth is like many people and it is clear that if someone succeeds in inventing a certain elixir of youth, then this person will become not only rich, but also famous for centuries. And in the glory he (or she) will be able to bask almost forever.
Some scientists believe that the best way to fight old age is the ability to return youth to an already aged body. The other day it became known that a very reputable scientist decided to start a new company that will deal with the rejuvenation of dogs. From old animals, the scientist hopes to get young using gene therapy. If it works, then the method will be tried in humans.
By the way, the scientist himself - his name is
George Church , he is a geneticist - is going to become the first volunteer. But only if rejuvenation works on dogs. His startup is called
Rejuvenate Bio . The most interesting thing is that the company has already conducted preliminary tests - just on dogs. And the results, according to the authors of the study, are very promising. As mentioned above, the basis of the method is gene therapy. Scientists have added special areas to the “native” DNA of animals with instructions that allowed the body to rejuvenate.
Previously, genetics
have already made experiments with living organisms - but only with worms, other not very complicatedly organized creatures. As it turned out, changing the genes accordingly can increase the lifespan of the animal several times. In addition, studies were conducted with mice of venerable age. The results were also positive. The "old men" did not become mice, but still their appearance improved, and their health improved.
“We have already conducted quite a lot of tests on mice, we are now conducting similar experiments with dogs, after which we will move on to people,” Church said last year. Unfortunately, it is still unclear how many animals were “rejuvenated” - the results of experiments are often kept secret. However, in some documents that fell into the hands of sneaky journalists, it is indicated that there were four dogs in total - it was on them that the experimenters carried out experiments.
By the way, even if experiments with people will be carried out in the distant future, the mere rejuvenation of pets can gleam a startup. The fact is that only in the USA the volume of the pet market (pets themselves, their food and accessories, care products, treatment, etc.) is $ 72 billion.
Experiments are now being put on hounds, and also for a reason. The fact is that hounds are an expensive breed, and the owners of an old dog can pay a lot of money for returning a healthy and happy pet, whose legs are as fast as a few years ago.
The problem here is that it is unclear how much the method of scientists has changed dogs - only they speak about the results, and in most cases these are just words that are not supported by evidence. That is, if in a good way, then nothing is known about the results of the experiment. But if they exist, their results are positive, you can probably expect people to start spending huge amounts of money on creating the “elixir of youth”. Actually, Church is unlikely to talk simply about his fantasies - the authority of a scientist is quite large. He probably still does not reveal all the cards, and only.
The project has received support from both private investors and the state. In the latter case, the funds were provided by the state organization US Special Operations Command. Its representatives hope that scientists will be able to "improve" military dogs. It is clear that if the method is effective, it can be used for cows, pigs, chickens, cats, dogs, etc.
The team began working with animals, bypassing the clinical research stage for the simple reason that it would take too long to test the drug in humans. According to the project manager, he would not want to come to the FDA and declare that the drug extended the life of a specific person. The scientist fears that they will not believe him and say: “Well, come in 20 years with the research data and see,” said the FDA.
At the first stage of work, the scientist plans to start a fight with heart diseases that are common for spaniels and Doberman-Pinschers. He hopes that he will be able to achieve positive changes in the organisms of dogs, and then similar techniques will work for humans.
Laboratory studies have previously shown that old age is reversible, at least in relation to individual cells. Scientists have learned to reprogram almost any individual cells so that they return to the state of "youth", as in the body of an embryo. But, of course, it is much more difficult to return youth to cell groups, tissues, and even more so organs. The fact is that in the body, even a relatively simply organized animal, there is a huge number of specialized cells that perform certain functions.
For this reason, some scientists are convinced that it is impossible to reverse the flywheel of time. “I don’t think we can eliminate aging or regain youth for mammals,” says Pedro de Magalaes of the University of Liverpool.
However, other experts consider this possible. It is on the return of youth mammals works one of the laboratories of Harvard. In this case, scientists plan to use gene therapy, rather than tools like CRISP.
Gene therapy is a complex method of introducing individual sections of DNA into the genome of animals. Viruses are used for this. In the laboratory of George Church, gene therapy has already been used to regulate the gene activity of the old mouse. Scientists have achieved both increased activity and decrease. And this, in turn, can help to return some cells to a state of youth, which will lead to the renewal of the whole organism.
The laboratory works with more than 60 instruments of gene therapy, practicing various techniques on old mice. Some techniques are combined to enhance the final result. Now a report on the work done is being prepared, which will be published in any authoritative scientific publication. According to the researchers themselves, the results are very impressive.
The goal of the whole project, as Church says, is to give a person the opportunity to have a body and speed of the brain of a 22-year-old person, but the experience of a 130-year-old.
It is clear that he is not alone in his desire to live, if not forever, then close to that. There are enthusiasts of gerontological science in Silicon Valley. Here, for example, billionaire
Peter Thiel also plans to begin the fight against aging and its consequences. Thiel founded a startup whose idea is to give a person the ability to control his own biological clock and set them for any age that the person himself would like.
Church, meanwhile, is trying to convince everyone that his work is ethical and necessary for humanity. As mentioned above, the scientist chose the dogs because the pet industry is very rich. If it is possible to return the youth to the dogs, it will bring a profit that can be spent already on the research of the "elixir of youth" for people.
It is planned to begin with the breed of dogs Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. These cute dogs, unfortunately, are dying for the most part from their old age of 10 years because of the mass of various diseases that affect them in adulthood. One of the problems is heart disease, they are planned to be stopped by blocking the production of TGF-beta protein. It is believed that this is the main regulator of the process of degradation of heart valve changes in these dogs.
But here the question arises - if you manage to cope with this disease (which is far from a fact), will it be a real cure for old age, even for dogs, or just a method of treating heart diseases?
As for the aging process itself, the point of view is now quite common that one of the main causes of aging is disruption of the mitochondria. This is not the only reason, but an important one. With age, the number of mitochondria in cells decreases in humans and animals, in addition, the number of copies of mitochondrial DNA in mitochondria decreases. Plus, the performance of the mitochondrial transport system decreases quite significantly (about 40%).
Another
reason , perhaps, is the reactive oxygen species, which is a by-product of the oxidation reaction. They react with cell molecules and damage them. And this leads to
apoptosis of the cell.
As for genetic engineering as a medicine for old age, then, according to the WHO, 9 out of 10 causes of death of a person are caused by various genetic factors. With the help of genetic mutations can prolong life, it is considered practically proven. With the introduction of even a single mutation, the life of a person or animal can be prolonged, and quite significantly. For example, mice were able to extend the life by 20% by introducing telomerase of the same mouse by the age of one year old mouse.
Clinical trials of gene therapy in people who are trying to prolong their lives using the same method are underway. Two of these drugs have already been tested and entered the market. In gene therapy, the difficulty is that if you modify one section of DNA, it can prolong life, but somehow affect the work of other body systems. If there is not one change, but several, it is very difficult, if not impossible, to track their effect on the body. After all, the factors of influence will overlap each other, have a cumulative effect on some systems and not affect the others. And in most cases it is not about turning old age into youth, but about slowing down the rate of aging of the human or animal body.
Not gene therapy can help, but pharmaceuticals. Generally speaking,
there are about 250 substances
in the world that have a positive effect on life expectancy. Here, too, the difficulty is that it is unclear how they interact with each other. But it is clear that the pill "extend life" is not, and it is unlikely that it will appear in the near future.
The same Church with his ideas just started work in the direction of rejuvenating the body and it is not clear whether this work will be of any importance. It remains, as they say, only to wait and hope. But if he does something with dogs, then in this case there will be hope for the person.