Biogerontology for dummies
We can either be the first generation to live much longer than our ancestors,
or the last one to live a relatively short life
Alexander Zhavoronkov, Post-scienceBiogerontology is a very broad field of knowledge that studies the processes of aging and the mechanisms of combating it.
It includes many other branches of science, such as regenerative medicine, various intracellular processes and processes occurring at the body level…
Aging as such has been studied for a very long time: a huge number of scientists and statesmen have tried to find a cure for old age. It still does not exist, and if someone told you that they came up with such a medicine, then, most likely, an amateur is talking to you.
The aging process takes place on so many levels and is very complex. However, in the serious science of combating aging, a huge number of discoveries have occurred in the recent past. We can be either the first generation to live much longer than our ancestors, or the last to live a relatively short life.
The area that shows the greatest results and will revolutionize the clinic is regenerative medicine. It is already possible to grow organs from the patient's cells. At the laboratory level, scientists have already grown a heart, kidney, trachea, and other organs.
In 2012, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded for achievements in cellular technology to Dr. Yamanaka, who showed how to modify human cells so that they act like embryonic stem cells. So far, these cells cannot be used in therapy, but the industry is developing very quickly both from a scientific point of view and from a commercial point of view.
The cultivation of artificial organs has already become a reality. In Russia in 2011, several transplants of artificially grown trachea were performed to patients who would have died if they had not received such a procedure. This method was developed by Paolo Macchiarini, a famous Italian and Swedish scientist, who was brought here by Mikhail Batin. If we can eventually transplant a kidney, liver or lungs, we will greatly increase life expectancy, because it will be limited only by the health of our nervous system. We can also try to restore it at the molecular level.
One of the main causes of aging is failures in the mechanisms of damage repair, which accumulate with age. There are well-known geneticists in Russia, such as Alexey Moskalev, who every year give us new discoveries in the field of aging genetics and find promising mechanisms that can be "turned on" and "turned off" to slow down this process.
There are several diseases that resemble accelerated human aging. One of them is Hutchinson-Guilford syndrome. With this disease, children live up to about 15 years old, and throughout their lives we see phenotypic signs of aging: their hair falls out, a large number of wrinkles appear, osteoporosis, etc. Regulatory processes in this syndrome are studied by our laboratory at the Federal Research and Clinical Center of Pediatric Hematology, Oncology and Immunology. The syndrome is caused by a mutation in the LMNA gene, in which the defective protein lamin A, encoded by this gene and lining the inner part of the cell's nuclear membrane, accumulates, which leads to deformation of the membrane and failure of many epigenetic processes.
This is one of the promising areas of studying aging, because ordinary people also accumulate defective lamin A, and if we can more effectively purge it from cells or improve its quality control, we will hypothetically be able to slow down the process of our own aging.
In our laboratory, we analyzed the regulatory networks in which lamin A is involved, and found several promising solutions that can be used to make targeted regulation possible with various low-molecular compounds. We have picked up these compounds and are now conducting laboratory experiments. There are already some interesting results, but we are at the very beginning of the way.
Hutchinson-Guilford syndrome is a very rare disease: 1 case per 4 million. There are about 50 patients in the world now, we have not found confirmed cases in Russia, so we had to take cells from abroad. In connection with this syndrome, there is a very close international cooperation, and in 2011 a group led by Francis Collins, the current director of the US National Institutes of Health, showed very promising results of the effectiveness of rapamycin on cells. Rapamycin is already on the market and is used in transplantology, immunology and other fields.
One of the very bright scientists in the field of biogerontology is Dr. Michael West, who in the 80s became a scientist (before that he was engaged in business), founded the company "Geron" and supported the research of Elizabeth Blackburn and Carol Grader, who discovered the protein telomerase (for which they received the Nobel Prize). The main idea of the company was to use this protein, which, after each cell division, completes the tips of chromosomes – telomeres that shorten with each cell division. Unfortunately, in the 90s it turned out that the strategy of using telomerase to combat aging did not work. Why? In cancer cells, telomerase is also elevated, and as soon as the cell gets unlimited access to it, it begins to divide indefinitely and becomes cancerous.
The company "Geron" changed its strategy and began, on the contrary, to fight cancer using telomerase inhibitors. Michael West also became involved in cellular technology after he realized that telomerase is not a panacea. He founded the company "Advance Village Technologies", and after that he moved to the company "BayoTime", which develops cellular technologies for the treatment of age-related diseases.
In the near future, I am sure, many of the technologies that are being developed in biogerontology will appear in the clinic. Some products are already available now, but are not used for preventive purposes to prolong healthy longevity. In addition to a wide range of natural substances that can be taken as dietary supplements, including polyunsaturated fatty acids, some vitamins, low-molecular compounds such as beta-blockers, statins, cardioaspirin, metformin and many other drugs are widely used in clinical practice, which hypothetically can be geroprotectors and can add some number of years of life to us. Now they are all in a state of clinical trials for new ways of using.
It seems to me that in the next 20 years there will be a revolution in biogerontology and we will really be able to significantly delay the aging process. If there is no serious economic collapse abroad or serious wars, thirty-year-olds can already estimate the horizon of their own life at about 140-150 years, taking into account those technologies that will soon reach the clinic.
One of the main problems in this area is that the state and pharmaceutical companies are more funding clinical trials and research that are aimed at treating diseases rather than increasing healthy longevity, therefore we will see a huge number of pensioners who will live for a very long time, but will no longer be able to give productive returns to society. Let's hope that diseases such as cancer and cardiovascular diseases will fade into the background, just as the problems of tuberculosis, pneumonia, etc. were once solved. We will focus more on aging and active longevity as such.
The author is a candidate of physical and Mathematical Sciences, Head of the Laboratory of Bioinformatics of the FNCC DGOI, Director of the Foundation for Biogerontological Research
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru19.04.2013