A natural compound used as an immunosuppressant in organ-transplant patients has been found to extend life in mice, according to a study published on July 8 in the journal Nature. Aging mice that were given the substance, rapamycin, lived significantly longer than mice that didn't get the drug: females that received rapamycin were 13% older at death and males 9% older.
The research, conducted as part of the National Institute of Aging Interventions Testing Program, took place at three separate test sites and involved nearly 2,000 genetically similar mice. Trials began when mice were about 600 days old — well into middle age, at a stage roughly equivalent to 60-year-old humans. (See the top 10 medical breakthroughs of 2008.)
And here I was thinking that blood replacement was the secret?
What's especially interesting is this:
However, even administered late in life, rapamycin delayed the deaths of the longest-lived male mice by 101 days and by 151 days in the longest-lived females — the equivalent of about 13 years on average in humans — compared with mice with no treatment. In terms of life expectancy when treatment began (or average remaining lifespan when the mice were 600 days old), that translates to an increase of 38% in female mice and 28% in males.
28% increase over an 80-year lifespan is a not-inconsequential 22.4 years. Not quite approaching Lazarus Long capacity, but it's a start... The real question, of course, is whether we'll improve plastic surgery to the point of calling it "rejuvenation"...
That is all.
7 comments:
This is a complex issue but a really exciting one.
They will bring out the advances and we will work thru the changes.
Imagine, sitting there an old man, crippled up with arthritis with another 22 years to go....
Of course, they still don't really know if it has any effects on humans. They may have just found a way of making rodents live longer--- BFD.
Rob,
Like Bob points out, we don't even know if this will translate into the human world or not. But it does raise some thorny questions.
How would it work if given from the onset of life? Would all phases be extended? Do we tack on an additional 20 years at the end? Would it mess with adolescence? Old age?
Between this breakthrough, viagra, and Alzheimer's, we could have an entire generation of 120 somethings wandering around with boners and no clue what to do with them...
BobG,
Oh, of course. But this is certainly a fascinating step towards that elusive fountain of youth.
And just think. The company that perfects this for human use is going to have stock prices that make Viagra look like a statistical blip...
"blood replacement" ?
All I can think of with those words is that SNL parody of the old Folgers Crystals commercials that said "we replaced your coffee with Folgers Crystals". Someone is in a hospital bed and there's a bag of dark fluid dripping into the patient's arm. This guy comes in, looks at the patient and says "Hey! We replaced all your blood with Folgers Crystals!"
actually, we do know that rapamycin has effects on humans. it's currently being used to suppress the immune systems of organ donation recipients --- not the kind of drug one wants to take long-term if there's any helping it.
Even if they find a sure-fire way to extend life by 20 years, so what? It's all at the end. If I'm going to get an extra 20+ years, I want them in my 20s and 30s. Living a lot longer when I'm 90 might not seem like a good idea.
You know, this will all the more bankrupt social security and socialized healthcare system.
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