18 till I die
No # 13, 3 minute ready
Bryan Adams ring
I recently heard this iconic Bryan Adams song again, originally released in 1996. And could not help but wonder - could he have seen the future?
Geroscientists are working aggressively on making this Bryan Adams dream a reality! They have set themselves a goal of letting us live longer, way longer than he must have dreamt off (goals range from 150 years to infinity!), while remaining fit, active, disease free and healthy, (as if we were 18 years old), for as long as we are alive!
Geroscientists now believe that death is not an inevitability, rather, it is problem to be solved!
Here is an update on the different technologies that these Geroscientists are working on, which is going to make this a reality:
Targeting ageing with drugs: US FDA has approved the TAME trial (Targeting Ageing with Metformin)1 led by researcher Dr Nir Barzilai and the clinical trial will start soon. With this beginning, we can hope that the regulators will now see ageing as a disease and give the green light for other drug trials to combat ageing. In any case, I believe that a success in the TAME trial (its completion date is 6 years after start) will throw open the regulators door to term ageing as a disease, and this will pave the way to eventually discover various elixirs for life extension and age reversal.
Soon enough we can expect a vaccine or pill for age reversal!
Gene therapies: Gene therapy is a technique that can treat or prevent disease by gene intervention. Gene therapies are expected to help doctors treat a disorder by inserting / deleting / editing a gene in a patient's cells instead of using drugs or surgery. More than 350 gene therapy based clinical trials are currently under way in the US alone, with more than 600 others enrolling participants. The current focus of these gene therapies is on rare “orphan diseases” like SCID and Hunter syndrome, etc., but is expected to move soon to mainstream conditions that affect hundreds of millions of people. For example, a gene silencing drug, Inclisiran, has been approved in Europe as a LDL Cholesterol reducing therapy that requires just 2 injections per year as opposed to a daily dose of statins! 2
As technology and scientists’ expertise continue to advance, the cost of gene based therapies will continue to come down by several orders of magnitude, whereby, solving a hereditary condition one time through genetic engineering will be cheaper (besides improving the quality of life dramatically) than providing treatment over the lifetime of an individual, thus paving the way for mainstream adoption of gene therapies.
So we can all stop worrying about a bad inherited genes!
Cellular reprogramming via stem cell therapies: Cellular reprogramming is the act of reverting mature, specialised cells into induced pluripotent stem cells, also known as iPS cells. For example, it would be possible to place adult skin or blood cells in a dish and convert them into neurons, liver, or heart cells! It is also possible to literally “rejuvenate” adult cells by reprogramming them into embryonic-like stem cells, which in turn can be differentiated into every tissue and cell type of the human body.
The implications of this are phenomenal - in theory, cellular reprogramming, can help repair, rejuvenate, regenerate and even regrow affected tissues / organs of the body.
While there are more than 500 companies involved in stem cell research in the US alone, the latest entrant in the business of “cellular biological reprogramming” is Altos Labs, a silicon valley start up, cofounded by, among others, billionaires Jeff Bezos and Yuri Milner, boasting of a Scientific Advisory board chaired by Nobel prize winner Shinya Yamanaka, Steve Horvath and other longevity luminaries. Considering the wealthy founders and brilliant scientific minds involved, much is expected of this new venture.
It is expected that atleast some of these therapies will start seeing success, and soon we will be able to rejuvenate any part of the body, with our own cells!
Organ replacement: Researchers have successfully transplanted 77 of the 78 organs of our body (all except the brain!). Organ transplantation is a surgical procedure in which an organ is removed from one body and placed in the body of a recipient, to replace a damaged organ. However, organ transplantation has three major limitations : (1) drug treatment–related complications; (2) chronic rejection; and (3) most importantly availability of transplantable organs.
Hence, there is tremendous amount of research going on currently in the fields of organ regeneration (in our own body), growing organs in a laboratory with recipient cells, or in animal surrogates or via 3D printing using recipient cells / tissues.
Already replacement skin has been successfully grown in a lab by biotech company, Stratatech. United Therapeutics (UT) subsidiary Lung Biotechnology is working on xenotransplantation from pigs to humans. Working from a 275,000-square-foot laboratory set on 132 acres, the firm plans to raise enough genetically modified pigs to supply most of the US lung transplant needs within the coming decades. Also, teams around the world are working on 3D bioprinting of kidneys, livers, pancreases, and other organs. And in an exciting first, researchers at Tel Aviv University 3D-bioprinted an entire heart, complete with blood vessels, two ventricles, and four chambers.
Senior researchers in this space believe that developments in this space will enable organ availability “on demand” in the next 10-20 years!
Lifestyle modifications to impact biological age: It is now well accepted that following certain protocols in our health tests / trackers, diet, exercise, sleep, to reduce stress, supplements, biohacks, etc. have a significantly positive impact on our biological age and longevity. A study by Dr Kara Fitzgerald 3 and others showed a reduction in biological age of participants by 3.23 years after a treatment protocol of lifestyle modifications for only 8 weeks.
Besides the above, therapies such as young donor plasma transfusion, hyperbaric oxygen therapy, cold therapy, heat therapy, etc. have also shown positive effects on reducing biological age.
Senior Geroscientists believe that healthy lifespan can be increased by something like 10 years, simply by following proven lifestyle modifications!
They recommend that everyone should actively follow these lifestyle modifications right away, while we wait for the above mentioned therapies / solutions to be available commercially.
This was an update only on some of the various new technologies that are being worked upon by Geroscientists. There is now a broad agreement between them that ageing is a disease and that curing ageing will not only help us win the war against majority of the current causes of death (these being related to the heart, cancers, diabetes or brain issues), but will also enable us to live longer and at a much younger biological age.
On a side note, these various technologies are together going to create one of the biggest new business’ in the world. Bank of America has forecast the market will balloon to $610 billion by 2025, from an estimated $110 billion currently.
So welcome to the new world. I can even hear the Gerontologists sing this epic Bryan Adams number :
“18 'til I die
I wanna be young the rest of my life
Never say no, try anything twice
'Till the angels come, and ask me to fly
I'm gonna be 18 'til I die, 18 'til I die
Can't live forever, that's wishful thinkin'
Whoever said that, must have been drinkin'
Don't wanna grow up, I don't see why
I couldn't care less if time flies by
18 'til I die, 18 'til I die…….”
See you on the right side!
Akkshay Mehta
(Age Reversal Evangelist)
This blog is my effort to inspire you with the latest developments in the space of healthspan, lifespan and age reversal. In simple English! Do share and Stay tuned.
I would love to hear from you. I can be reached at mehtaakkshay@gmail.com
https://www.afar.org/tame-trial
The official web resource of the TAME Trial, managed by the American Federation for Aging Research.
https://www.novartis.com/news/media-releases/novartis-receives-eu-approval-leqvio-inclisiran-first-class-sirna-lower-cholesterol-two-doses-year
https://www.drkarafitzgerald.com/
Dr Kara Fitzgerald’s website, for reference.
So much to learn! Thanks so much for sharing your passion and experience Akshay bhai!
👏 👏