Aging, the New Frontier

Dear Future Centenarian,
We are finally moving from an era where nothing could be done to defeat aging into an era where advancing technology will give us the tools to overcome it. All the old attitudes are no longer relevant.
We’re so used to people dying from age related causes that we accept it as a normal part of life. And we become desensitized to this death. But let’s look at it from a different angle and see if you think about it differently.
Robert Freitas, a brilliant scientist and perhaps the world’s utmost authority on Nanomedicine, offers some interesting ways to view aging. He points out the following:
100,000 lives are lost every single day from aging related causes. They’re scattered all over the world, so we hardly notice. But what if 400 jetliners fell out of the sky in a single day? We would be astonished, outraged and sickened. Yet effectively, that’s equivalent to 400 jetliner crashes.
If 400 planes crashed every day, wouldn’t the world marshal all its powers to insure aircraft safety, especially if we had no choice but to fly?
What if we could avoid… or at least postpone most aging related deaths?
Then why isn’t treating aging a #1 priority?
After all, if you or a loved one had a major medical condition such as cancer, heart disease or suffered a stroke, wouldn’t you ask for the very best medical care?
If we had a treatment that could reverse Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, osteoporosis, arteriosclerosis or diabetes… who in their right mind would turn it down?
Now it is aging, the new frontier. Since it kills everyone who survives or dodges diseases, might not aging be considered a disease as well? MaxLife looks at it as a curable disease, in fact the mother of most diseases. And we’re determined to do something about it.
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LATEST HEALTHY LIFE EXTENSION HEADLINES

The Dreaded Reactive Oxygen Species (July 25 2008) http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-07/uorm-ruk072108.php
It's good to see more research groups looking into targeting antioxidants to the mitochondria. From EurekAlert!: "Researchers have taken a first snapshot of how a class of highly reactive molecules inflicts cellular damage as part of aging, heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes, kidney disease and Alzheimer's disease to name a few. Researchers have discovered a tool that can monitor related damage and determine the degree to which antioxidant drugs effectively combat disease. Our study provides a better glimpse of why a cell under assault by disease makes 10 times as many reactive oxygen species [ROS] as the same cell when healthy. We have discovered a chemical tool for investigating how diseases cause damage, mitochondrion by mitochondrion. Efforts to develop antioxidant drugs (e.g. vitamin E) to treat diseases of increased oxidative stress have met with limited success to date because they tried to eliminate ROS, rather than maintain the right amount, Sheu said. He established the Mitochondrial Research & Innovation Group (MRIG) [in] 2002 with the goal of designing therapies to deliver precise amounts of antioxidants to the mitochondria of diseased cells only. MRIG teams are, for example, screening through compounds to confirm that oxidative stress can be reversed by mitochondria-specific drugs."

On Hormesis and Longevity (July 24 2008) http://pmid.us/18648625
A nice overview of hormesis: "Aging is characterized by a stochastic accumulation of molecular damage, progressive failure of maintenance and repair, and consequent onset of age-related diseases. Applying hormesis in aging research and therapy is based on the principle of stimulation of maintenance and repair pathways by repeated exposure to mild stress. In a series of experimental studies we have shown that repetitive mild heat stress has anti-aging hormetic effects on growth and various other cellular and biochemical characteristics of human skin fibroblasts undergoing aging in vitro. These effects include the maintenance of stress protein profiles, reduction in the accumulation of oxidatively and glycoxidatively damaged proteins, stimulation of the proteasomal activities for the degradation of abnormal proteins, improved cellular resistance to ethanol, hydrogenperoxide and ultraviolet-B rays, and enhanced levels of various antioxidant enzymes. Anti-aging hormetic effects of mild heat shock appear to be facilitated by reducing protein damage and protein aggregation by activating internal antioxidant, repair and degradation processes."

Yeast and Aging Research (July 22 2008) http://ouroboros.wordpress.com/2008/07/21/biogerontology-rising-recent-progress-in-yeast-aging-research/
Ouroboros looks at the humble yeast in context: "Our understanding of aging in animals owes a great debt to a large body of careful work in a single-celled organism, the brewer's yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Indeed, as I've argued before, yeast is one of the two organisms with the strongest credible claim to have started modern biogerontology. An unusually large crop of yeast aging papers have appeared over the last few months, and I thought it would be appropriate to spend a few paragraphs describing them - in honor of this humble organism that rises our bread, ferments our beer, and has done so much to open our eyes to the fundamental mechanisms of aging. Yeast mutants in worm longevity genes are significantly more likely to be long-lived than randomly chosen mutants - suggesting [that] genes that modulate aging have been conserved not only in sequence, but also in function, over a billion years of evolution. Given this functional conservation, it is reasonable to use yeast to help answer questions about aging in general, so long as these questions as cell-biological in scope."

New York Times on Sirtris (July 22 2008) http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/22/health/research/22long.html?pagewanted=all
The New York Times looks at Sirtris Pharmaceuticals: "The hope is that activating sirtuins in people would, like a calorically restricted diet in mice, avert degenerative diseases of aging like diabetes, heart disease, cancer and Alzheimer's. There is no Food and Drug Administration category for longevity drugs, so if the company is to submit a drug for approval, it needs to be for a specific disease. Nonetheless, longevity is what has motivated the researchers and what makes the drugs potentially so appealing. Dr. Christoph Westphal, the chief executive of Sirtris, said of the potential of the drugs, 'I think that if we are right, this could extend life span by 5 or 10 percent.' He added that his goal was to develop drugs against specific diseases, with the extension of life being 'almost a side effect of our medicine.'" There you have the most serious problem facing longevity science today: that its direct application is not permitted by the FDA. Until this changes no serious investment will be made in the US to bring longevity science to the clinic. This is a tragedy of so great a scale as to beggar belief.

Thoughts on Mortality and Its Evasion (July 21 2008) http://tacit.livejournal.com/250032.html
An interesting LiveJournal post: "A person immune to the ravages of old age would still not be immune to death; accident, violence, and other misadventure is perfectly capable of ending even a 25-year-old's life. It simply means that person no longer has a cap on the maximum time he can live, if he so chooses. And that's really what it's all about. Choice. If you go into the doctor's office, and he tells you that you have a bacterial infection, which will slowly grow progressively worse until it kills you painfully, then offers you an antibiotic pill that will completely eradicate the infection, I bet you'll take it. Even if you don't fancy the thought of living forever. There's an important point in that.

Even folks who don't much want to live forever still probably don't want to die today. Or tomorrow. Someday, perhaps, if that 'someday' is held in the abstract; some future time when things no longer seem interesting. But not today. And that's the point. A solution for aging puts the power to choose in your hands. Old age forces your hand; you don't get the choice to see your grandkids graduate from school, or to celebrate your fiftieth anniversary. The choice is made for you. And I don't see how that benefits anyone."

Growing Blood Vessels (July 21 2008) http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7514317.stm
Researchers continue to work at the blood vessel problem in tissue engineering. From the BBC: "Scientists have used human cells to grow new blood vessels in a mouse for the first time. The ability to develop swiftly a new network of tiny blood vessels - known as capillaries - would be a prize for scientists. There are dozens of potential applications in medicine, particularly in the treatment of conditions which involve damage to a tissue's blood supply, such as that to the heart muscle following a heart attack. However, the complex structure of these vessels has slowed progress. What's really significant about our study is that we are using human cells that can be obtained from blood or bone marrow rather than removing and using fully developed blood vessels. It could certainly assist in the connection of other engineered organs to the body's blood supply. Although this approach is not yet suitable for clinical use, it is interesting that they have demonstrated you have all the elements you need to create a functional network of capillaries from a small amount of blood."
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DISCLAIMER: News summaries are reported by third parties, and there is no guarantee of accuracy. This newsletter is not meant to substitute for your personal due diligence and is not to be taken as medical advice. For originating report, please see www.longevitymeme.org/newsletter/.
If you would like to be removed from my list, I will stop sending you Longevity News Digest if you simply reply to this email with Unsubscribe in the subject line.

Biological Evolution

Dear Future Centenarian,
We’ve come a long way in our lifetimes. In fact, we have accomplished as much then as we did in all of recorded history. At least technologically. As a race, we really didn’t seem to have learned many lessons. Oh sure, maybe our justice systems are a little more fair (and maybe not), we may have developed a little more tolerance and compassion, and maybe we’re not quite as barbaric. All in all though, we react to intrusions about the same as prehistoric man.
We still settle disputes and differences about the same way. We either initiate or answer with violence for the most part. But instead of clubbing each other senseless and confining our rage, jealousies, pettiness and intolerances to an area roughly equivalent to our immediate reach and to one enemy or victim at a time, we now have these wonders of science at our disposal, capable of inflicting widespread death and destruction.
Then, we had clubs and primitive minds. Now we have nukes, biological and chemical weapons, potentially devastating nanotechnology capabilities… and primitive minds.
While we have evolved in some ways at light speed, our ability to solve social problems and disputes and our tendency to hate hasn’t changed since caveman days. Look, we’re on the cusp of breaking through to indefinite lifespans and solutions for health problems, poverty and pollution. But what good does it do us when emotionally unstable individuals have abilities to wipe out millions with no more effort or forethought than swinging a club?
Fortunately, the human race is extremely resilient and resourceful. We often respond to challenges in creative and unexpected ways. A relatively new foundation recognizes this challenge and is taking it on as part of its agenda. See more information at www.InnerSpaceFoundation.org.
They recognize that biological evolution is a somewhat haphazard and non-optimizing process that has produced many undesirable artifacts. Among a large number and wide variety of such artifacts, two stand out as the underlying causes of the most pervasive and extreme human suffering: mental and lifespan limitations. Mental inabilities, including the failure to resolve conflicts non-violently, are universal. They must ultimately serve to explain our ongoing failures to end human warfare, crime, poverty, and famine, and to completely cure diseases, disabilities, aging and death. Therefore, these inabilities are fundamentally even more harmful to humanity than the categories of biomedical dysfunction we currently labor to cure.
This belief forms the core of the Bioprogressive philosophy. The overall goal of the InnerSpace Foundation (IF) is to accelerate developing biomedical technologies for transcending these limitations. IF is taking specific steps toward enhancing memory, learning and cognition. These near-term goals should ultimately help us to eliminate or transcend other unwanted artifacts of Darwinian evolution.
IF, among others, have longer-term goals aimed at preserving memories. So hang on. We have some interesting times ahead.
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CANCER AND IMMUNE SYSTEM PROFICIENCY

Are some immune systems much better than others at destroying cancer in its earliest stages? It seems that this is the case. Can we copy that proficiency and use it as a therapy? The prospects look promising:

http://www.fightaging.org/archives/001525.php

"First, we had cancer-resistant mice and asked, 'What can we learn from it?' The reason it's resistant is because it has very different white cells. So then that immediately prompted the concept of therapy, because you can easily transfer white cells. You can extract them as a therapeutic agent and give them to another mouse. It's a therapy. It's much better than to find the gene. If you find the gene, then you have to understand the mechanism, and you have to find a way to put the gene into the cell, into all the cells you want to, and that would not work very easily. The technology as we speak right now is not really mature for that area. You might have to wait another 10, 20 years before that technology catches up with the concept. However, what we found is a cell as a therapeutic agent, so why not go ahead and see how it works. It worked really well in mice, so the next question, very obviously, is can we find a similar cancer resistance for humans as a donor for a therapeutic agent. And the answer is yes, we did find quite a few of them ".

From a broad assessment of cutting edge cancer research, it seems that we are well on the way to turning cancer into a controllable chronic illness. You'll have outbreaks, they'll be caught early, and the medicine of the 2020s will eliminate them. The question is whether this is good enough: is a comprehensive suite of low-risk, safe cancer cures enough to remove cancer as a threat while our lives are extended by other medical technologies?
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LATEST HEALTHY LIFE EXTENSION HEADLINES

The Broadening Search for Longevity Genes (July 17 2008)
http://www.technologyreview.com/printer_friendly_article.aspx?id=21092
The MIT Technology Review looks at continued attempts to understand the degree to which present healthy human longevity is influenced by genes: "An ambitious plan to sequence 100 genes in 1,000 healthy old people could shed light on genetic variations that insulate some people from the ailments of aging, including heart disease, cancer, and diabetes, allowing them to live a healthy life into their eighties and beyond. Rather than focusing on genetic variations that increase risk for disease, scientists plan to focus on genes that have previously been linked to health and longevity. Advances in genetic screening technologies have allowed scientists to start searching the genome for clues to healthy aging and a lengthy life span. That work has revealed that the genomes of healthy old people are not blemish free. These people have genetic susceptibility markers for many serious diseases [but] they don't get any of these diseases. What is the explanation? What might account for their insulation from these diseases?" Genes are not fate - evidence to date suggests that lifestyle choices have much more weight for all but the most genetically unlucky, and those choices are reflected in epigenetic variations, not genetic variations.

Self-Assembly in Tissue Engineering (July 16 2008) http://www.technologyreview.com/printer_friendly_article.aspx?id=21080
The MIT Technology Review looks at a promising strategy in tissue engineering: "Tissue engineers are ambitious. If they had their way, a dialysis patient could receive a new kidney made in the lab from his own cells, instead of waiting for a donor organ that his immune system might reject. Likewise, a diabetic could, with grafts of lab-made pancreatic tissue, be given the ability to make insulin again. But tissue engineering has stalled in part because bioengineers haven't been able to replicate the structural complexity of human tissues. Now researchers have taken an important first step toward building complex tissues from the bottom up by creating what they call living Legos. These building blocks, biofriendly gels of various shapes studded with cells, can self-assemble into complex structures resembling those found in tissues. This will be an effective way to put the cells where we want them to be. You can probably generate a tissue with a higher complexity [using] the new method than is possible with a scaffold that has to be seeded with cells." Compare and contrast with the use of whole-organ cell matrix templates, another recent development aimed at solving the same problem.

Stress, Cortisol, and Shortened Telomeres (July 16 2008) http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-07/uoc--usi071508.php
Chronic stress correlates with shorter telomeres, as well as with worse health. Via EurekAlert! researchers are proposing a mechanism by which telomere length is reduced by stress, leading to a worse immune response: "Short telomeres are linked to a range of human diseases, including HIV, osteoporosis, heart disease and aging. An enzyme [called telomerase] keeps immune cells young by preserving their telomere length and ability to continue dividing. The stress hormone cortisol suppresses immune cells' ability to activate their telomerase. This may explain why the cells of persons under chronic stress have shorter telomeres. When the body is under stress, it boosts production of cortisol to support a 'fight or flight' response. If the hormone remains elevated in the bloodstream for long periods of time, though, it wears down the immune system. We are testing therapeutic ways of enhancing telomerase levels to help the immune system ward off cortisol's effect. If we're successful, one day a pill may exist to strengthen the immune system's ability to weather chronic emotional stress."

Why Fight Aging? (July 15 2008)
http://www.acceleratingfuture.com/people-blog/?p=2307
A Future Current transcript of one of Aubrey de Grey's presentations at Aging 2008: "Some people say, 'I don't want to live to a thousand.' I don't want to live to a thousand, necessarily. I don't even know if I want to live to a hundred. But I do know I want to make that choice when I am 99, rather than having it gradually removed from me by declining health. This is what it comes down to. The extension of lifespan by the defeat of aging is not the point - at least it is not the main point for me, and I do not think it is the main point for most people who are engaged in this crusade. The purpose is to alleviate the suffering that goes with getting decrepit, frail and dependent. Of course, this includes not just those who are suffering that, but the suffering of their loved ones. The extension of average lifespan is essentially a side benefit. It is something that will happen because the way that we are going to do this, using regenerative medicine, will also mean that you have only the same probability you did when you were a young adult of dying peacefully in your sleep without any of these diseases. In other words, a very low probability indeed. You will indeed on average live a great deal longer, and I don't think you’ll complain if you do. However, that is not the purpose. The purpose is to alleviate suffering."

On the Way to Longevity (July 14 2008)
http://www.dailybruin.ucla.edu/news/2008/jul/14/within-20-years-you-wont-have-grow-old/
The Daily Bruin talks to some of the folk who were at Aging 2008: "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. Aging is the most universal degenerative condition and is now becoming the target of regenerative medicine. 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. Aging is a complex phenomenon that affects many different systems. 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."
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DISCLAIMER: News summaries are reported by third parties, and there is no guarantee of accuracy. This newsletter is not meant to substitute for your personal due diligence and is not to be taken as medical advice. For originating report, please see www.longevitymeme.org/newsletter/.

If you would like to be removed from my list, I will stop sending you Longevity News Digest if you simply reply to this email with Unsubscribe in the subject line.

David A. Kekich
Maximum Life Foundation
714-641-0700/Fax 714-464-4135
www.MaxLife.org

"Where Biotech, Infotech and Nanotech
Meet to Reverse Aging by 2029"

The Problem… Population Size. The Solution… SuperLongevity

Can super longevity solve, rather than create a population problem?

Consider these points edited from a paper presented several weeks ago by Herb Meyer at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Mr. Meyer is widely credited with being the first senior U.S. Government official to forecast the Soviet Union's collapse, for which he later was awarded the U.S. National Intelligence Distinguished Service Medal, the intelligence community's highest honor. Formerly an associate editor of FORTUNE, he is also the author of several books.

Some of His Conclusions

Maintaining a steady population requires a birth rate of 2.1. In Western Europe, the birth rate currently stands at 1.5, or 30 percent below replacement. In 30 years there will be 70 to 80 million fewer Europeans than there are today. The current birth rate in Germany is 1.3. Italy and Spain are even lower at 1.2. At that rate, the working age population declines by 30 percent in 20 years, which has a huge impact on the economy. When you don't have young workers to replace the older ones, you have to import them.

In Japan, the birthrate is 1.3. As a result, Japan will lose up to 60 million people over the next 30 years. Because Japan has a very different society than Europe, they refuse to import workers. Instead, they are just shutting down. Japan has already closed 2,000 schools, and is closing them down at the rate of 300 per year. Japan is also aging very rapidly. By 2020, one out of every five Japanese will be at least 70 years old.

The birth rate in Russia is so low that by 2050 their population will be smaller than that of Yemen.

Nobody has any idea about how to run an economy with those demographics. Europe and Japan, which comprise two of the world's major economic engines, aren't merely in recession, they're shutting down. This will have a huge impact on the world economy, and it is already beginning to happen.

When the birth rate drops below replacement, the population ages. With fewer working people to support more retired people, it puts a crushing tax burden on the smaller group of working age people. As a result, young people delay marriage and having a family. Once this trend starts, the downward spiral only gets worse.

These countries have abandoned all the traditions they formerly held in regard to having families and raising children. The U.S. birth rate is 2.0, just below replacement. We have an increase in population because of immigration. When broken down by ethnicity, the Anglo birth rate is 1.6 (same as France) while the Hispanic birth rate is 2.7.

In the U.S., the baby boomers are starting to retire in massive numbers. This will push the elder dependency ratio from 19 to 38 over the next 10 to 15 years. This is not as bad as Europe, but still represents the same kind of trend.

The world's most effective birth control device is money. As society creates a middle class and women move into the workforce, birth rates drop. Having large families is incompatible with middle class living. The quickest way to drop the birth rate is through rapid economic development.

Pretty sobering, isn’t it? So what’s the solution? Longevity… and lots of it. Keep the elderly alive, healthy and productive. Keep them out of retirement, hospitals and nursing homes where they drain resources, and have them contribute to the economy when they are at the peak of their productive capacity.

A Real Boost for Aging Research

Friday, June 27th I attended Aging 2008 - Aging: the Disease, the Cure, the Implications at UCLA. It was sponsored by Dr. Aubrey de Grey and the Methuselah Foundation. About 700 people attended a stimulating three hour session featuring an All-Star lineup of aging researchers, advocates and personalities.

Most of the attendees spent the next couple of hours networking at an outdoor dinner. In my opinion, some of the more important and interesting people in the world were there, including some movers and shakers who are launching exciting companies and research projects – projects that could have a big impact on your health and longevity.

Here is a list of the speakers:
Dr. Bruce Ames, Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at UC Berkeley
G. Steven Burrill, Chairman of Pharmasset and Chairman of Campaign for Medical Research
Dr. Aubrey de Grey, Chairman and CSO of Methuselah Foundation and author of Ending Aging
Dr. William Haseltine, Chairman of Haseltine Global Health
Daniel Perry, Executive Director of Alliance for Aging Research
Bernard Siegel, Executive Director of Genetics Policy Institute
Dr. Gregory Stock, Director of Program on Medicine, Technology & Society at UCLA School of Medicine
Dr. Michael West, CEO of BioTime and Adjunct Professor of Bioengineering at UC Berkeley
I also got a Methuselah Foundation T-shirt, one of the coolest T-shirts I ever saw.

Aging 2008 was the opening session for the technically focused Understanding Aging conference which took place Saturday and Sunday. Thirty four scientists presented over the weekend. I believe this was the most extensive scientific longevity conference ever held in the US. Hopefully, the Methuselah Foundation will offer videos.

Open-forum events like this enable scientists to bounce ideas of one another, to cross pollinate ideas and to open up various research programs to debate and scrutiny. As a result, it fast tracks longevity research. Congratulations to Aubrey de Grey and all the Methuselah Foundation volunteers who made it happen.

Then last week, I attended a presentation to an investment banker to fund two very progressive adult stem cell companies. He made a verbal commitment, and funding might take place as early as this month. Once these companies are launched, human therapies could be accelerated. That could translate to the first round of therapies becoming available by next year. Anti-aging science is ratcheted up one more notch.
All-in-all that was a very productive week for life extension. Let’s look forward to many more.