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(n.) Using new medical science and biohacking to slow down the aging process, repair existing damage and live a dramatically longer life in peak physical and mental health.

Credit: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/aug/04/can-we-reverse-ageing-process-young-blood-older-people

How Silicon Valley is betting billions that “young blood” is the key to anti-aging

April 28, 2021

Two separate studies conducted by neuroscientist, Tony Wyss-Coray, have shown that blood from young mice provided restorative effects to the brains of elderly mice.
To date, his company has also discovered more than 8000 proteins in the blood that show promise in the field of anti-aging.
The results of his studies could be the key to understanding the fundamental role that blood plays in geroscience.

In 2011 and 2014 respectively, Stanford University neuroscientist Tony Wyss-Coray—along with his associate Saul Villeda—published two scientistic papers that studied blood from young mice. What they discovered was truly groundbreaking… The blood they extracted from these young mice showed a somewhat miraculous restorative effect on the brains of elderly mice. The discovery was monumental in the field of geroscience—a branch of medical science that deals with the molecular and cellular mechanisms that make aging such a massive risk factor; and a contributing factor to chronic disease among the elderly. In the last six years, Alkahest— the company founded by Tony Wyss-Coray—has identified more than 8,000 proteins in the blood that show promising potential in the field of anti-aging. Their efforts have not gone unnoticed. Alkahest was recently purchased by Spanish firm, Grifols, for $146 million. The firm has already kicked off six phase 2 trials on plasma samples collected from young adults. These are geared towards treating a wide variety of age-related diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. But rather than focusing solely on the cause of a specific chronic disease, geoscientists are trying to understand just how human aging as a collective, affects the onset of chronic diseases. While the idea of aging correlating to chronic disease is nothing new, scientists are now confident that aging can be reverse-engineered, measured, and controlled. And while the vast majority of these anti-aging efforts are still in preclinical development, a few have recently entered into FDA trials and could potentially penetrate the market in a few years. While this is promising, defective drugs have also appeared on the market raising serious health concerns such as: Could poor young people be coerced to sell their blood to elderly billionaires? Let’s face it; growing old isn’t exactly a walk in the park; even with all the positive achievements that human beings have made on life expectancy in the past 150 years. Growing old means that your immune system gradually begins to break down; creating a low state of inflammation that suppresses cellular regeneration and causes a number of aches and pains. Human beings might have increased their life expectancy, but they are still hurting. And that is why emerging sciences, such as biohacking, are becoming increasingly important today. In human beings, insulin is the hormonal signal that prepares our body cells to absorb sugar and convert it into energy. Together with a closely related hormone called Insulin-like-Growth Factor 1 (IGF 1), the two affect a large number of cellular processes; including the rate of cellular division; which many experts believe is directly linked to aging. When insulin and IGF1 in human beings are minimized because of a lack of food, a number of cellular repair mechanisms—which are usually dormant in times of plenty—kick into high gear. Low insulin and IGF1 levels is a cue for our bodies to minimize regeneration and reproduction; therefore diverting our energy into cellular process that increases our chances of survival. The human body will choose to protect the cells that it already has first; it will increase enzyme production to prevent proteins from misfolding. It will ramp up the mechanisms designed to repair broken DNA, and it will break down cellular debris and defective cells that would have earlier been ignored. It will scout different parts of the body for waste that can be recycled to feed its healthier cells during tough times. This way, the body is able to clear cellular garbage that promotes low-level inflammation. As of now, there is no FDA-approved drug that targets the process of aging. For a drug to gain approval from the FDA, it must be designed to treat a specific disease. This is why some gerontologists “coincidentally” choose the popular diabetes drug metformin to serve as the “template” for a new batch of FDA-approved anti-aging drugs. Metformin works by affecting the body’s sensitivity to insulin and can have an effect on the pace of metabolism and energy expenditure. In the years following Wyss-Coray and Villeda’s experiments on the blood of mice, there have been a number of independently run investigations that have discovered an array of proteins that show both promising and detrimental anti-aging effects. Both kinds could prove groundbreaking for potential anti-aging drugs. If DNA is the body’s blueprint, then proteins are essentially its building materials. These proteins—composed of amino acids—are not the only vital building materials from which we construct brain cells, muscles, and bones, they also serve as the units from whence our bodies create hormones and other molecular-level signaling agents. Agents that carry vital messages from one part of the body to the other. As we age, many of the proteins that our bodies require to function gradually decline; while proteins that are no good to us accumulate in the most inconvenient places, thereby leading to inflammation. Interestingly, Villeda has been able to isolate a molecule present in mice that inhibits the regeneration of brain cells and leads to cognitive decline. The molecule seems to be connected to the gradual, age-related breakdown of the immune system, and when injected into the blood of younger mice, these pro inflammatory molecules can impair cognition. On the other hand, Wyss-Coray demonstrated it was possible to block the activity of another protein that accumulates with age, triggering a powerful restorative effect and vastly improving the performance of elderly mice on tests that measure memory and cognitive abilities. The results of this study are promising and demonstrate that the key to anti-aging could be in the blood of younger individuals in society.

References: https://www.newsweek.com/2021/04/16/can-blood-young-people-slow-aging-silicon-valley-has-bet-billions-it-will-1581447.html

How Silicon Valley is betting billions that “young blood” is the key to anti-aging

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