Support NeoGAF

[longdi]

Chinese scientists may have key to delaying ageing​

Wed, January 20, 2021, 12:49 PM

Scientists in Beijing may be one step closer to having the answer to living longer and reversing the effects of ageing.

A group of biologists at the Chinese Academy of Sciences say they have developed a world-first new gene therapy and have been running tests on mice.

It involved screening around 10,000 genes in search of particularly strong drivers of cellular ageing.
They identified 100 genes in that pool, but the one that really stood out was the kat7.

They then inactivated that kat7 gene in the livers of mice, Professor Qu Jing explained some of their findings:
"These mice show after six to eight months, they show overall improved appearance and grip strength and most importantly they have extended lifespan for about 25%."
Kat7 is one of tens of thousands of genes found in the cells of mammals.

The scientists also tested the function of the gene in human stem cells, human liver cells and more.
So far there have been no side effects of cellular toxicity.

Despite this, the method still has a long way to go from being ready for human trials and will require a lot of funding and much more research.

"In the end we do hope that we can find a way to delay ageing even by a very minor percentage we want to delay the human ageing in the future."
For now, there's no final answer to cheating death, but the scientists plan on testing the function of kat7 in other cell types of humans and other organs of mice.

Chinese scientists may have key to delaying ageing

Scientists in Beijing may be one step closer to having the answer to living longer and reversing the effects of ageing. A group of biologists at the Chinese Academy of Sciences say they have developed a world-first new gene therapy and have been running tests on mice. It involved screening...

news.yahoo.com

 

[Newly Vacant]

Chinese immortal super soldiers sounds like a thing that's going to happen in by the end of the decade.

 

[Kenpachii]

The question is why is that gene even in the body then if it just kills you off faster? There is probably a good reason why it is there.

 

[O-N-E]

The key would be keeping telomeres from shortening.

Cancer cells preserve telomere length via telomerase, which makes the cells ageless (can reproduce indefinitely).

You'd need to find a way to increase the production of telomerase throughout every dividing cell.

At that point, humans could in appearance look like they're around 25 at all times, but their body will still get clogged up with garbage (heart disease etc) and can acquire cancer and other genetic diseases. So it's more like "agelessness" in quotes.

Still interesting to think about.

 

[Tesseract]

The reserve-capacity hypothesis: evolutionary origins and modern implications of the trade-off between tumor-suppression and tissue-repair - PubMed

Antagonistic pleiotropy, the evolutionary theory of senescence, posits that age related somatic decline is the inevitable late-life by-product of adaptations that increase fitness in early life. That concept, coupled with recent findings in oncology and gerontology, provides the foundation for...

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

never forget

 

[Alebrije]

Just imagine people living more than 100 years. Also this tech will be as others only for rich people, armed forces and politicians...

There will be two kind of humans , the old ones and the new with longer lifes called "The Eternals".

Distopia times.

 

[The Pleasure]

Just imagine people living more than 100 years. Also this tech will be as others only for rich people, armed forces and politicians...

There will be two kind of humans , the old ones and the new with longer lifes called "The Eternals".

Distopia times.

The cure for "the eternals" is called "bullet"

 

[Sakura]

The key would be keeping telomeres from shortening.

Cancer cells preserve telomere length via telomerase, which makes the cells ageless (can reproduce indefinitely).

You'd need to find a way to increase the production of telomerase throughout every dividing cell.

At that point, humans could in appearance look like they're around 25 at all times, but their body will still get clogged up with garbage (heart disease etc) and can acquire cancer and other genetic diseases. So it's more like "agelessness" in quotes.

Still interesting to think about.

If we could solve ageing, I'm pretty sure we could figure out the other shit. There are animals that live hundreds of years and don't suffer from cancer etc, I think we could work something out.

 

[infinitys_7th]

We'll be transferring ourselves into robots and the Internet before we have biological immortality.

Why would you want to stay squishy forever anyway?

 

[QSD]

Chinese immortal super soldiers sounds like a thing that's going to happen in by the end of the decade.

Nah man, if you don't have to die from aging nobody is going to want to be a soldier anymore

 

[Newly Vacant]

Nah man, if you don't have to die from aging nobody is going to want to be a soldier anymore

What if the only way you can get the immortality serum is to be a soldier?

 

[Hudo]

Xi Jinping, The Eternal.

 

[SKM1]

Wanting to be immortal is akin to a boy never wanting to grow up.

Still it would be interesting how society reacts to this development if it ever comes.
I suspect there will arise groups of people whose mission is to assassinate people they have identified as immortal.
Would make for a good novel.

 

[mansoor1980]

immortal old timers?

 

[Alebrije]

Wanting to be immortal is akin to a boy never wanting to grow up.

Still it would be interesting how society reacts to this development if it ever comes.
I suspect there will arise groups of people whose mission is to assassinate people they have identified as immortal.
Would make for a good novel.

So this is how begins.

 

[QSD]

What if the only way you can get the immortality serum is to be a soldier?

That's some pretty starship troopers style reasoning, the CCP would love it. Who knows though, I don't think such a rule could really be enforced without getting into some serious ethical issues.

 

[DESTROYA]

So what almost extinct animal did they grind up for this time ?
Dried Tiger penis and Rhino horn powder doesn’t cut it anymore.


This guy seems to get it

 

[Dark Star]

Sign me up lol

 

[Ornlu]

The cure for "the eternals" is called "bullet"

That's a lot of bullets!

What if the only way you can get the immortality serum is to be a soldier?

Xi Jinping, The Eternal.

That's some pretty starship troopers style reasoning, the CCP would love it. Who knows though, I don't think such a rule could really be enforced without getting into some serious ethical issues.

Hey now, leave Starship Troopers out of this! Heinlein is turning over in his MFin grave

 

[ManaByte]

The question is why is that gene even in the body then if it just kills you off faster? There is probably a good reason why it is there.

Thought COVID was bad? Wait for the zombie apocalypse that begins in China from this.

 

[ArtemisClydeFrog]

 

[Spaceman292]

Chinese scientists may have key to delaying ageing​

Wed, January 20, 2021, 12:49 PM

Scientists in Beijing may be one step closer to having the answer to living longer and reversing the effects of ageing.

A group of biologists at the Chinese Academy of Sciences say they have developed a world-first new gene therapy and have been running tests on mice.

It involved screening around 10,000 genes in search of particularly strong drivers of cellular ageing.
They identified 100 genes in that pool, but the one that really stood out was the kat7.

They then inactivated that kat7 gene in the livers of mice, Professor Qu Jing explained some of their findings:
"These mice show after six to eight months, they show overall improved appearance and grip strength and most importantly they have extended lifespan for about 25%."
Kat7 is one of tens of thousands of genes found in the cells of mammals.

The scientists also tested the function of the gene in human stem cells, human liver cells and more.
So far there have been no side effects of cellular toxicity.

Despite this, the method still has a long way to go from being ready for human trials and will require a lot of funding and much more research.

"In the end we do hope that we can find a way to delay ageing even by a very minor percentage we want to delay the human ageing in the future."
For now, there's no final answer to cheating death, but the scientists plan on testing the function of kat7 in other cell types of humans and other organs of mice.

Chinese scientists may have key to delaying ageing

Scientists in Beijing may be one step closer to having the answer to living longer and reversing the effects of ageing. A group of biologists at the Chinese Academy of Sciences say they have developed a world-first new gene therapy and have been running tests on mice. It involved screening...

news.yahoo.com

Right. "Mice."

 

[Omega Supreme Holopsicon]

The question is why is that gene even in the body then if it just kills you off faster? There is probably a good reason why it is there.

Some animals have genes that cause them to commit suicide after reproduction, iirc. Sometimes you have to make space for the next generation.

 

[QSD]

Hey now, leave Starship Troopers out of this! Heinlein is turning over in his MFin grave

Lol that dude has been spinning so much recently he's probably already 3 foot lower than when they first interred him

seriously though, there's a link right? with the whole civilians vs citizens thing...

 

[Fbh]

I'll order my immortality pills from wish.

There's a 99% chance they'll just be expired mints...but you never know!!

 

[Sidney Prescott]

I can't wait until I'm eating a Cornetto and news comes in about a Zombie outbreak.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

There's science behind it?

I thought the cure would be something like drink turtle shell soup.

 

[M1chl]

It exists already, it's called cancer. The cells which do not die as they should. So any fuckery around that, could have dire consequences

 

[ManofOne]

If it 's made in China, then I expect it to work for 3 days and then watch my ass become dust.

 

[Ornlu]

If it 's made in China, then I expect it to work for 3 days and then watch my ass become dust.

 

[Skyfox]

Do you want zombies? Because this is how you get zombies.

Wear and tear is a fact of reality. Independent of the state of cells, the very design of your body cannot withstand the destruction of time.

If you allow the continuity despite the accumulated wear you're looking at zombies. Even if you can do some kind of regeneration on top of extended cell life, going off course is guaranteed.

What does that mean? Do I really have to explain this to an imaginative bunch raised on resident evil, doom, etc.?

Let nature take its course. Take some vitamins, get some exercise, make peace with God.

 

[The Hamburglar]

Some of you haven’t see crank I take it?

the Chinese can keep their Beijing cocktail

 

[King_Mandu]

Probably works as well as their Covid vaccine.

 

[West Texas CEO]

 

[Peggies]

I can't wait until I'm eating a Cornetto and news comes in about a Zombie outbreak.

 

[Alter_Fridge]

I don't want to live longer. Just look young until I die

 

[Northeastmonk]

I was holding onto the thought of a real “Fountain of Youth” somewhere out in the world.

 

[T8SC]

Is it Covid-21?

 

[longdi]

Thanks the Mods for cleaning up the title

 

[Kadayi]

Personally, I already found my method a few centuries back

 

[Trogdor1123]

We'll be transferring ourselves into robots and the Internet before we have biological immortality.

Why would you want to stay squishy forever anyway?

Cause it would probably be a duplication not a transfer. Which is less fun

 

[buizel]

*aliens accidently drop new tech*

china:

 

[infinitys_7th]

Cause it would probably be a duplication not a transfer. Which is less fun

I don't believe in the Ship of Theseus-type issue. Our bodies turn over at least once a decade, so either we are brand-new humans ever decade or the process is gradual enough that there is no impact on continuity of consciousness. This implies that a similar process could be done to upload/merge humans with technology.

 

[Trogdor1123]

I don't believe in the Ship of Theseus-type issue. Our bodies turn over at least once a decade, so either we are brand-new humans ever decade or the process is gradual enough that there is no impact on continuity of consciousness. This implies that a similar process could be done to upload/merge humans with technology.

It doesn't imply that at all... It is what you (and I truthfully) want it to mean.

 

[infinitys_7th]

It doesn't imply that at all... It is what you (and I truthfully) want it to mean.

It absolutely does. A cell is just an organic machine. If a technological machine can do the same thing as a cell, then the cell can be replaced by the machine. And if replacing cells with cloned cells doesn't cause a significant change, then neither would replacing cells with machines.

 

[Keihart]

I've seen this professor (David Sinclair) talking about it a lot on youtube for the last couple of years, but i think they are focusing on a pill instead of straight DNA therapy or something. He thinks they are very close.

 

[Trogdor1123]

It absolutely does. A cell is just an organic machine. If a technological machine can do the same thing as a cell, then the cell can be replaced by the machine. And if replacing cells with cloned cells doesn't cause a significant change, then neither would replacing cells with machines.

Well I think that's different than I was thinking. It would also require that each cell be replaced exactly which seems unlikely it also depends on what the "mind" is actually made up of. It is not clear in any way how the mind works at all. It is like defining consciousness. Either way, it still doesn't imply you are right (or wrong) just that cells might be possible to replace with machines which isn't the same thing.

Let's assume you are right though, are envisioning a process that each cell is swapped out over time or all at once? I'm assuming a process over time.

 

[Elektro Demon]

I ain't trusting the chinese.

 

[AnotherOne]

Jennifer lopez has already been using this for a decade.. China like they do copied her serum.

 

[SLoWMoTIoN]

Chinese immortal super soldiers sounds like a thing that's going to happen in by the end of the decade.

How can you call them super soldiers when they are 5'4?