[extropy-chat] Anti-Aging Molecule Discovered

[Robert Bradbury]

On 6/12/06, Ian Goddard <iamgoddard at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> Suppose a drug is found that reverses aging.


All they are claiming is a removal of cells from the "senescent" state they
are not claiming "reversing aging".  The first sentence in their abstract is
questionable because most somatic cells are not replicating and are not
"senescent" in the classical sense.  Senescence is classically determined
using cells which replicate and then cease replication but do not undergo
cell death (apoptosis).

However, all they seem to have so far are cell-culture tests of a drug, and
> there's a big leap from in-vitro to in-vivo outcomes.  There might even be
> reasons why preventing cellular senescence is not universally beneficial to
> a whole biological system.


Well said.  Indeed, if the alternatives to senescence are apoptosis or
cancer, then senescence is clearly the better of the three.  And indeed the
ATM gene that their CGK733 is affecting is a critical DNA repair gene which
when mutated results in either a reduction in cell division or an increased
risk of cancer.  The two primary genes it interacts with are p53 and BRCA1
[1], mutations in which increase cancer risks.  So I would suspect that
interfering with ATM such that it reduces cellular senescence would increase
cancer.

This is the kind of report is what happens when you have individuals who are
not educated in the biology of aging extending their claims into that
swamp.  Their abstract is pretty conservative (sticking to the facts) but I
have no doubt that people unfamiliar with the field  (i.e. the general press
& public) will misinterpret this as a significant breakthrough.

Robert

1. OMIM re: ATM:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/dispomim.cgi?id=607585
re: AT
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/dispomim.cgi?id=208900
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