Humans have probably been searching for a fountain of youth for as long as they've been cognizant of their own vulnerability. It hasn't stopped. See A stealthy Harvard startup wants to reverse aging in dogs, and humans could be next.
It would take too long to get FDA approval to test humans, so dogs will have to do for starters.
Basically, the process involves gene therapy to stop some known ailment, like heart failure, that's common in certain breeds. And selling a workable treatment to dog owners could be a good way to fund other tests. Here's an excerpt:
The company, which has carried out preliminary tests on beagles, claims it will make animals “younger" by adding new DNA instructions to their bodies.
Its age-reversal plans build on tantalizing clues seen in simple organisms like worms and flies. Tweaking their genes can increase their life spans by double or better. ...
Gene therapies work by inserting DNA instructions into a virus, which conveys them into an animal’s cells. In the Harvard lab, the technology has been used to modulate gene activity in old mice—either increasing or lowering it—in an effort to return certain molecules to levels seen in younger, healthy animals.
The lab started working through a pipeline of more than 60 different gene therapies, which it is testing on old mice, alone and in combinations. The Harvard group now plans to publish a scientific report on a technique that extends rodents’ lives by modifying two genes to act on four major diseases of aging: heart and kidney failure, obesity, and diabetes. According to Church, the results are “pretty eye-popping.”
The fear of most of us is that any discovery that could keep us alive longer may come along the day after we die.
------
3:14 PM 5/26/2018
Comments