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Is it possible to delay human ageing? The evolution of anti-ageing treatments


Is it possible to delay human ageing?

Brian Hanley, the founder of Butterfly Sciences, a company that has developed gene therapies for ageing, strongly believes that delaying human ageing is already possible and he used his own body to prove it!

Indeed, last June at a plastic surgeon’s office in Davis (California) happened one of the most incredible surgeries. Brian Hanley, a PhD microbiologist, asked a doctor to inject into his thighs copies of a gene that himself had designed. He used a method called electroporation, where circular rings of DNA (the plasmids) are passed into cells using an electrical current. Following this procedure, the rings of DNA float inside the nucleus and, when the gene is coded into the plasmid, it will start to manufacture the proteins. As a result, muscle cells absorb the new DNA.  

This experiment has been defined as a case of unregulated gene therapy. Many scientists distanced themselves from Hanley’s choice, accusing the microbiologist of ignoring a specific protocol that every therapy should follow before being used on humans, especially when it could have dangerous (and sometimes lethal!) consequences on individuals.  

A question is raised: why did Hanley decide to do this hazardous treatment on his own body?  As he explained, adding this gene to the muscle, his body would produce stronger hormones, potentially increases his stamina, strength and life span. In a nutshell, he claims that this treatment is justified as a strategy to delay his ageing.

Although this experiment has raised several doubts from ethical points of view, nobody could deny that Hanley’s dream is shared by several scientists, pharmaceutic companies and the majority of population.

Efforts to combat ageing date back to at least 3500 BC, but in the past anti-ageing strategies have had a poor reputation, since several treatments and diets (labelled as ‘anti-ageing’) have failed. However, the emerging issue of ageing population has led more and more scientists to focus on this goal with the result that biological ageing is now much better understood than previously. There are indeed some lines of research within bio-gerontology that seem to offer the promise of effective therapies for slowing down the ageing process in humans. Starting from evidence gained in the study of non-vertebrate ‘models’ (such as flies and nematodes and yeast), biologists investigate various biochemical pathways that may impact the rate of human ageing. They have demonstrated that the modulation of activities in these pathways modifies the model organisms so as to extend both life span and health span. Although a great many researchers are now engaged in trying to identify the hundreds of genes and myriad environment interventions that may enable us to enhance longevity in humans[1], the prudent consensus is that it is not yet possible to upgrade interventions that work with simple animal models to the vastly more complex human organism. There is no solid evidence for the effectiveness of any of the interventions that have been proposed as a way of delaying human ageing. There is however a strong consensus that healthier lifestyles increase the chances of living longer and healthier lives, and that there is still plenty of scope for achieving improvements in average longevity by this means.

It seems however quite likely that the ongoing medical revolution and the adoption of increasingly sophisticated interventional strategies will help to reach this goal in the near future and, perhaps, they will change the global quality of life in the 21st century.


[1] Bengtson V. L. and Settersten, R. (2016). Handbook of Theories of Aging, Third Edition. New York, NY: Springer Publishing Company


About the Author:

 

Dr Sara Zella is a Research Fellow at the Oxford Institute of Population Ageing. Sara joined the Institute in 2016 to work with Professor Sarah Harper on the research project “The impact of different work/care life courses on women’s wellbeing and quality of life in early retirement and the welfare regimes which help shape this”.


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Comments Welcome: We welcome your comments on this or any of the Institute's blog posts. Please feel free to email comments to be posted on your behalf to administrator@ageing.ox.ac.uk or use the Disqus facility linked below.