With today’s medical advancements, human longevity may soon increase by centuries, anesthesiologist Christopher Wiley said last Tuesday in a pathology seminar at the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center.
“I’m going to outline a strategy that many allow people living today to live for a very long time,” Wiley, a self-proclaimed “closet futurist,” said to preface his discussion.
First in this outline, Wiley described methods by which people can “optimize [their] health,” prescribing a number of helpful supplements: antioxidants; omega-3, 6, and 9 fatty acids; hormones; anti-proliferatives; and anti-glycation serum. He focused, however, on caloric restriction – the limiting of calorie intake.
Rather than forcing people to reduce their diets, scientists are now developing supplements that mimic caloric restriction. One such supplement, Wiley said, is Resveratrol (RSV), the “Holy Grail of caloric restriction mimetic.”
RSV is an organic compound that is naturally found in wine grapes and that serves as a sirtuin activator (STAC). Sirtuin is a deacetylase that helps to inhibit stress-induced apoptosis, a mechanism of aging. Thus, by taking RSV supplements, people can increase sirtuin potency and thereby fight aging. Wiley added that because RSV is found in wine, some hypothesize that it is the secret behind the “French paradox” (why the French show fewer signs of aging).
RSV has been tested several times on various test subjects with promising results. In yeast, RSV was shown to increase lifespan by 70 percent. In one study, mice whose diets were supplemented with RSV showed less fat gain, more oxygen intake, and better-maintained rectal temperatures than mice who were not given RSV. RSV mice also had larger and more abundant mitochondria, better endurance, and better insulin sensitivity (in the case of diabetic mice).
Next on Wiley’s outline for increased longevity was what he called “rejuvenation therapy,” or repairing the cell damage that is synonymous with aging. For this, Wiley pointed to Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence (SENS), a plan that takes an “interventionist perspective” to slow or prevent aging: identifying cell damage and fixing it.
According to SENS, Wiley said, there are only seven types of cell damage, all for which there is a solution: cell atrophy, nuclear genome mutations, mitochondrial genome mutations, cell senescence, AGE cross-links, lysosomal waste, and extracellular waste.
Cell atrophy can be fought with growth factor, stem cells, and exercise. Synapse repair and exercise can combat nuclear DNA mutations. To prevent mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) mutation, SENS is now working on MitoSENS, a method of moving mtDNA into the nucleus to prevent damage. General cell senescence can be inhibited by supplements like RSV. AGE-crosslinks can be broken up by enzymes. And finally, SENS is working on a project called LysoSENS that proposes the use of microbes to digest lysosomal and extracellular waste.
Wiley concluded the lecture with the last two steps of his proposal for longer life: “profound rejuvenation” and “beyond rejuvenation.” Wiley said here that within 50 years, nanotechnology will take over medical needs, and, soon, humans “may be more machine than biology.”