Is This the Key to Reversing Aging?

I've mentioned this before in another article (see here ).  Age is something that can be treated with a better understanding of the human body and great treatment technologies.

In essence, research shows that aging is a deterioration of human cells eventually leading to a critical part of the body shutting down.  The cells of the heart, brain, lungs or other tissues just get too badly damaged that the tissues and systems just can't function anymore.  And then we pass away.

Organizations like Human Longevity, inc. and the SENS Research Foundation in the US are focusing their entire resources in finding treatments for one or several of the 7 biological causes of aging:

1. Cell loss / atrophy
2. Death-resistant cells
3. Nuclear mutations and epimutations
4. mtDNA mutations
5. Protein crosslinks
6. Junk accumulated inside cells
7. Junk accumulated outside cells

I mentioned earlier this year there was a treatment that was going to human trials sometime in 2017 that would help with the some causes of aging (nuclear mutations and mtDNA mutations). 

Scientists have also made some headway in correcting another cellular problem that occurs with age:  cell loss without any replacements.  You've probably heard that cells divide only a certain number of times in our body's life (those that aren't stem cells that is, which is the majority of the cells in our body).  Scientists think that this is because of a part of our chromosomes, the tail ends, or telomeres, which shorten with time, eventually making cellular division impossible.  Thus cells that die don't get replaced, leading to a whole lot of aging-related issues.

Researchers at the Houston Methodist Research Institute did some research recently with patients affected by progeria.  Progeria is a genetic disease where babies are born with accelerated aging, to such an extent that they look like 80 year olds by the age of 12 or so, and typically die of age-related issues by the age of 15.   The researchers treated patients with RNA molecules that encode RNA telomerase forcing the progeria patients to produce RNA telomerase in their own cells.  RNA telomerase then works on elongating the telomeres in each cell.  

The results were encouraging because most patients' cells started dividing normally again, helping with the regeneration of tissues and also reducing the amount of inflammatory proteins the cells produce (toxic in high levels).  In essence, the laboratory was able to reverse part of the person's aging processes by making the cells act as if they were younger.  

Other laboratories are working on fixing the gene that causes this problem in the first place, possibly using the CRISPR protein complex.  That would be best.  However, the work of the Houston laboratory does relieve the disease's symptoms in patients and have given us a tool that could be used on anyone to help counter and reverse some of the processes related to aging.

That's great stuff but to me the most impressive discovery around aging came from the researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, who have found that adult stem cells located specifically in the hypothalamus may be responsible to activate multiple mechanisms of aging altogether.

I talk about this particular discovery further and it's potential impacts in the video below:

Now, we know that these hypothalamus stem cells are responsible for neurogenesis (the generation of new neurons) and we know from measurements that the population of these specific stem cells decreases as an animal ages (including humans).

We also know from the research that these stem cells produce what we call micro RNA (miRNA) that seem to have no other function except for regulating the expression of various genes in the body.  Contrary to most RNA that never leave the cell where they are produced, these flow into the bloodstream and enter other cells in the body.  So as the population of these stem cells decreases with time, less miRNA is produced ergo fewer genes that are regulated are activated or deactivated when needed.

According to my information we know little about which genes the hypothalamus-produced miRNA regulate but it they seem to be important in keeping tissues young because when the Albert Einstein College of Medicine researchers injected miRNA into the brains of old mice or mice that had their hypothalamus stem cells destroyed, many aging-related symptoms were halted or even reversed.  The results were the same if the researchers injected stem cells into the mice's hypothalamus region.

We can only speculate that if we can keep the stem cell population of our hypothalamus at a high level, many aging-related issues would be averted.  So far, I don't think we know why these cells die off over time, because stem cells typically just keep reproducing themselves infinitely and do not age like differentiated tissue cells.

A researcher in longevity that I know, Dr. Aubrey de Grey, from the SENS Research Foundation, when asked about the potential of this particular discovery, told me that for now, the impact of it all isn't that significant, but I have a sneaky suspicion that many of the age-related issues are related to one another through these hypothalamus adult stem cells.

Time and more research will tell...

 

Nano Race Cars, Synthetic Life & Cyber-Workers, Oh My!

Nanotechnology has advanced quite significantly over the years up to the point where we've seen some really useful practical use, most of which people are unaware of, partially because it sounds like science fiction.

But first, let's define nanotechnology.  It is generally technology that is on the nano scale, which is one billionth of a meter.  We're dealing with the realm of the atoms and molecules.  Hence any technological application where we're manipulating materials at the atomic/molecular level can be called nanotechnology.  What is going into applications or already in application has already started to change our lives.

In this article I would like to discuss specifically what most people think of when it comes to nanotechnology.  Yep, you heard it, nano robots and the like.

I discuss the philosophical implications in the video below:

Bio-engineering
I've written quite a bit about how we're now able to manipulate molecules to be able to create tiny organic machines.  Well, that's one form of nanotechnology using organic molecules of course!

In the past, we've explored the great advancements we've made using the CRISPR-Cas9 protein complex, a complex that we've modified from bacteria to do a simple job:  repair defective genes with great precision.  With it, we can cure over time all genetic diseases, repair mutated genomes and even cut out viruses that are hiding in our cell's nuclei (viruses like Herpes etc...).

We're also capable of creating our very own chromosomes and we've also made the first synthetic form of life, through engineering fairly recently.  Pretty cool that we're able to do this right?  Though that one is old news since the first was in 2010!

Cybernetics
In 2015, a company in Stockholm, Sweden, decided that it would be practical to implant their 2,000 odd workers with tiny chips in their hands to be used as passes for security purposes as well as allow them to wave their hands in order to make purchases on site with the distribution system knowing exactly to which account flag the purchase.  With this tech, it would be possible to also know exactly when each employee is taking breaks, when they come in, when they leave, whether they are healthy or in distress etc...  The list goes on and on.  The company says they did this to be at the forefront of technology and be seen as a technologically advanced company in Stockholm.  Though the information I have doesn't exactly state all the features they may have integrated into the nano-chip but the workers don't seem to mind.  The device has very small components and don't impede their work at all.

This though makes them all cyber-workers all of a sudden transmitting through their hands their identity... something that is hard to fake.  You can't exactly leave this chip to a friend to enter onto the premises and if one day someone had part of their hand cut out, it would come out as pretty suspicious, and security would definitively investigate a breach...

Personally, I'm not a fan of any kind of surgery... heck I don't even like the prospects of getting a small tattoo (one day?).  But frankly, if its pretty superficial and I can get serious benefits from the small implant, I would go for it too and follow the buzz!

Nano racing cars
In 2011, scientists started building actual moving machines, including cars at the nano level.  This year, 2017, is the first nano-car race competition.  These things are very small, and truly "nano" with wheels 60 atoms wide organized on a carbon atom chassis.  Heck they will even create a nano racetrack with actual atomic obstacles for the competition.  How can you participate?  Well, you have to be pretty expert and have the right equipment to make cars of that size.

But don't fret, some labs have even thought of creating IKEA-style rules and numbered parts so you could make your own car (in this case, nano biocars using a hard material skeleton and muscle cells that act as drivers).  Once the novelty of the races will pass, I'm sure we'll start getting pretty good at making hybrid or technological machines on the same scale that would have more practical uses, like perhaps build things atom by atom.  Not a far-fetched idea in our world of 3D Printing tech.

I for one, am excited that we've figured out increasingly innovative and efficient ways to build machines, organic or non-organic, that can do tasks at that scale.

Revolution Science - Gene Editing, Major Cures & Eugenics

Today, I was reading up on genetic advancements and reread an article that came across my desk about a week ago.  I thought to myself:  I really, really need to get this out a bit more because the consequences of this research being "out" are astounding.

True enough, since this came out about 3 years ago from the labs (once again, very well documented, peer-reviewed science, well supported), a great many startups have picked up on it to create applications in the real world and many Venture Capital companies have invested huge sums to get it all going.

Dr.  Jennifer Doudna, Berkeley University, California

In the following Youtube video I talk a bit more about this and integrated into my video is the TED talk video from the head researched herself that published the paper a few years back.  She describes the technique and its potential applications better than I ever could.  Check it out:

Bottom line, this is once more a revolutionary piece of science that, in just a few years, will change our world.

Why?

We can soon say goodbye to potentially ALL genetic diseases. 
For example:

• Cystic Fibrosis
• Tay-Sachs disease
• Some cancers
• Sickle Cell Disease
• Huntington's Disease
• Many more

We can also say hello to  possibilities in:

• Genetic human enhancements
• Designer babies
• Designer pets and other animals
• Cures for retroviral and persistent genetic viral infiltration diseases such as:
• AIDS
• Herpesvirus
• Proviruses

This is very exciting because we can get, as a human species, get more ownership over our own physical bodies, customizing it the way we want and feeling more in control of what it does (eradication of some diseases). 

Others would likely say that this is terrible news since governments and corporations would also be able and likely will use this technology to create better soldiers and biological weapons.  Using this tech, it would be pretty simple to create a bio weapon that would target a certain population for example and make them extremely sick (disable) on a genetic level.

I'm of the opinion that science must advance and we have to lobby, and be active in our desire as a society to see through ONLY the positive applications of great technologies.  Science is not evil... only people can be evil (people hungry for power.

For those of you who believe this can be "canned"... its unlikely at this point.  Way too much money has been spent from investors to take this new research down into oblivion, just too much money to be made.  But this time into long duration cures.  Not only that, but with the CRISPR technology, we can also heal the gametogenesis cells of both genders so that they cannot transmit whatever genetic defect they have to their children.  Cool huh?

One of many startups using CRISPR to attempt genetic cures and other genetic modifications

 

One of the biotechnology companies in the race to make things happen, Editas Medicine, hopes to do human testing on a specific genetic disease by 2017, a genetic eye disorder that renders people carrying the erroneous gene blind, called Leber congenital amaurosis, cure it and report findings.  If successful with this one disease, they hope that the FDA will approve more testing for other diseases and release them to offer a cure for this disease to all affected desiring treatment.

And you know what?  The technique is super simple and inexpensive they say.  How that translates into $$$ and cents, we'll soon see but sounds good to me!

For the biochemistry and biology fans out there, here is a picture of the process involving CRISPR and the Cas9 protein at work in cutting the bad gene and duplicating a healthy DNA copy below.

Cas9 at work during the CRISPR process of editing a gene

 

So keep watch for more developments on this in a couple years where we'll start seeing firms, hospitals and not-for-profit organizations offering treatment for all sorts of debilitating diseases as well as all sorts of beneficial designer genetic modifications to the population... for a cost... :) .

 

Keep the revolution going, using great science! 

 

Support this sort of excellent research everywhere and we can create our own paradise of peace, harmony and health for all soon enough.