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Scientists develop a compound which reverses muscle ageing in mice

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E-Cat

E-Cat

Member
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-12-20/scientists-develop-anti-ageing-process-in-mice/5168580

Australian and US researchers have developed a compound which reverses muscle ageing in mice, saying it could be one of the keys to reversing ageing in humans. When used in trials, the compound gave mice more energy, toned their muscles, reduced inflammation, and led to big improvements in insulin resistance.

Scientists say it actually reversed the ageing process, not just slowing it down, and say that for humans the effect would be similar to a 60-year-old feeling like a 20-year-old. And they say human trials could start within the year. The study has been published this morning in the research journal Cell.

"I've been studying ageing at the molecular level now for nearly 20 years and I didn't think I'd see a day when ageing could be reversed. I thought we'd be lucky to slow it down a little bit," University of New South Wales geneticist Professor David Sinclair said. "The mice had more energy, their muscles were as though they'd be exercising and it was able to mimic the benefits of diet and exercise just within a week." Professor Sinclair led the study from his base at Harvard Medical School in the US. "We think that should be able to keep people healthier for longer and keep them from getting diseases of ageing," he said.

The researchers also looked at particular diseases in the old mice. "We looked at diabetes, we looked at muscle wasting or frailty, and we also look at inflammations as something that gives rise to many diseases like arthritis. All of those aspects of ageing were reversed within that week and that was really quite a striking result," Professor Sinclair said. He said the team identified a new cause of ageing that is particularly prevalent in muscle, including the heart. "What we think is going on is that we have two major chromosome sets in our body," he said.

"We have chromosomes that we all know about, we call it our genome, but there's other DNA that we often don't think about - the mitochondrial DNA that we get from our mothers. "What we found is that during ageing these two genomes, the chromosomes, don't talk to each other," he said. "Much like a married couple talks to each other when they're newly married but then they stop communicating after about 20 years, at least in some cases. "Then we found that we could reverse that and get the communication going again and the animals went back to being young again".

"We used a molecule that raises a chemical in the body that goes down as we get older - its simple name is NAD (Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide)," he added. "When we're young we have the high levels of NAD and if we exercise and diet, the levels of this NAD molecule are high in our body. "But as we get older, and as these mice in our experiments got older, the levels went down about 50 per cent and then we could give this drug to bring the levels back up again."

The next stage in the research involves trials with humans, most likely within the next year.

Professor Sinclair is reluctant to forecast how long it will be before the compound might be readily available for use but he says he has established a company to push things along. "These trials, if we do manage to do them in patients, are millions of dollars and really I need to raise money to be able to do them and that’s the mechanism," he said.
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J

John Dunbar

correct about everything
Scientists say it actually reversed the ageing process, not just slowing it down, and say that for humans the effect would be similar to a 60-year-old feeling like a 20-year-old.
Click to expand...

so they invented viagra.
 
BizzyBum

BizzyBum

Member
I saw this on Futurescape.

Amazing stuff. Gives me hope when I'm older stuff like this will be widely available to the public so people can end up living hundreds of years.
 
C

Cindres

Vied for a tag related to cocks, so here it is.
I can see the future slogan already.

"Reduce the effects of ageing today, go NAD! "
 
S

Silkworm

Member
Woo, let's overcrowd the planet even more and have an aging population that expects to live on Social Security for many more decades (see Albert Brooks' book 2030) ;-) Of course, it this worked perfectly then people could just work longer (since they'd be healthy physically and mentally longer) and contribute back to the economy such that this could offset things. Now work until you are 80 years old and then retire :p
 
B

Blake'sGrave

Member
YCSSmiq.gif
 
U

User 100115

Banned
Silkworm said:
Woo, let's overcrowd the planet even more and have an aging population that expects to live on Social Security for many more decades (see Albert Brooks' book 2030) ;-) Of course, it this worked perfectly then people could just work longer (since they'd be healthy physically and mentally longer) and contribute back to the economy such that this could offset things. Now work until you are 80 years old and then retire :p
Click to expand...

Don't worry.

It'll only be available for the super rich.
 
BizzyBum

BizzyBum

Member
Silkworm said:
Woo, let's overcrowd the planet even more and have an aging population that expects to live on Social Security for many more decades (see Albert Brooks' book 2030) ;-) Of course, it this worked perfectly then people could just work longer (since they'd be healthy physically and mentally longer) and contribute back to the economy such that this could offset things. Now work until you are 80 years old and then retire :p
Click to expand...

This is true, which is why we should be hurrying to build that damn Moon/Mars colony.
 
E-Cat

E-Cat

Member
Woorloog said:
Extraordinary claims (and this is one really) require extraordinary proof.
Skeptical about this...
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Yeah, it does sound too good to be true. Even if it works in mice, the treatment is not necessarily easily transferable to humans. Still, an interesting result that should give us confidence we can find ways to alleviate, or even reverse, symptoms of old age.
 
W

Woorloog

Banned
E-Cat said:
Yeah, it does sound too good to be true. Even if it works in mice, the treatment is not necessarily easily transferable to humans. Still, an interesting result.
Click to expand...

And it is not a life-extension treatment really.
So it works on muscles... If it works on the heart, that's a big deal. But other organs? Someone with non-functioning organs will die whether they have functional muscles or not.

Are its effects temporary (ie only as long as the compound is present, perhaps for a short while after)?

And it most certainly does not solve cellular replication stopping eventually.
 
Slayer-33

Slayer-33

Liverpool-2
Is ageing the Australian version of aging? Fuck?

"Then we found that we could reverse that and get the communication going again and the animals went back to being young again".
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Fuck
 
E-Cat

E-Cat

Member
Woorloog said:
And it is not a life-extension treatment really.
So it works on muscles... If it works on the heart, that's a big deal. But other organs? Someone with non-functioning organs will die whether they have functional muscles or not.

Are its effects temporary (ie only as long as the compound is present, perhaps for a short while after)?

And it most certainly does not solve cellular replication stopping eventually.
Click to expand...
It can be _part_ of a life-extension treatment. The problem is that you need to address more than half a dozen different aging processes simultaneously; otherwise, the effect on maximum lifespan will be negligible.

Slayer-33 said:
Is ageing the Australian version of aging? Fuck?



Fuck
Click to expand...
It is the non-American version. :)
 
D

DedValve

Banned
time to gain some political importance asap. I want in on this shit.

On the other side we will finally have a young looking, extremely buff looking president a few terms down the line
not to say that Obama isn't one of the hotter presidents
 
W

Woorloog

Banned
E-Cat said:
It can be _part_ of a life-extension treatment. The problem is that you need to address more than half a dozen different aging processes simultaneously; otherwise, the effect on maximum lifespan will be negligible.
Click to expand...

Sure.
OTOH, it will probably help old people's daily life considerably if it works. So it won't be a waste if it works really.
 
Z

Zhengi

Member
This would be awesome if it turns out to work.

This would help out older people who are not able to move freely and greatly improve their quality of life.
 
K

kswiston

Member
The actual abstract for the paper doesn't sound as fountain of youth-like as this article is making the discovery out to be.

I can't access the full article, but I wonder if it is one of these cases:

tumblr_m4fne7giiz1r1fhpso1_1280.jpg
Click to expand...
 
E-Cat

E-Cat

Member
kswiston said:
The actual abstract for the paper doesn't sound as fountain of youth-like as this article is making the discovery out to be.
Click to expand...
That's because science is boring and objective. The article puts the meaning in layman's terms, albeit in a sensationalistic manner. But the information content is largely the same.
 
L

Letterbomb

Banned
Hurry, science! My family gets older every day.

Awesome stuff. Gives me some serious hope. Will likely still be quite some time before implemented to the common society, if at all.

Space colonization, you're up.
 
S

Silkworm

Member
E-Cat said:
That's because science is boring and objective. The article puts the meaning in layman's terms, albeit in a sensationalistic manner. But the information content is largely the same.
Click to expand...

What?! You find "Declining NAD+ Induces a Pseudohypoxic State Disrupting Nuclear-Mitochondrial Communication during Aging" boring? 'Tis awesome sauce! ;-)
 
K

kswiston

Member
E-Cat said:
That's because science is boring and objective. The article puts the meaning in layman's terms, albeit in a sensationalistic manner. But the information content is largely the same.
Click to expand...

More NAD+ in your cells is not going to get rid of the many other effects of aging. The news article's title is fluff.
 
E-Cat

E-Cat

Member
Silkworm said:
What?! You find "Declining NAD+ Induces a Pseudohypoxic State Disrupting Nuclear-Mitochondrial Communication during Aging" boring? 'Tis awesome sauce! ;-)
Click to expand...
Ehh, who am I kidding? ;)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Fh_liyhIH8

kswiston said:
More NAD+ in your cells is not going to get rid of the many other effects of aging. The news article's title is fluff.
Click to expand...
The title only refers to reversing muscle aging, not all the effects of aging.

EDIT: Ok, it actually DOES say "reverses aging", but right after that only talks about muscle aging. The gist of the article itself paints a fairly accurate picture of the abstract, if you ignore all the hyperbole. I suppose it depends on the reader.
 
K

kswiston

Member
E-Cat said:
Ehh, who am I kidding? ;)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Fh_liyhIH8


The title only refers to reversing muscle aging, not all the effects of aging.

EDIT: Ok, it actually DOES say "reverses aging", but right after that only talks about muscle aging. The gist of the article itself paints a fairly accurate picture of the abstract, if you ignore all the hyperbole. I suppose it depends on the reader.
Click to expand...

This is a lot closer to hormone treatment than it is rewinding the clock on grandpa such that he is 20 years old again. The fact that half the people in this thread are planning their immortality based on the news shows you how the title reads.
 
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