Three scientists, along with their colleagues, seem to have made a pioneering discovery able to change the very definition of life expectancy and the concept of age. No, they didn't devise an elixir able to turn humanity into immortal Elves butthey did finda super-strong presence of a very rare kind of T-helper (immune) cells in the blood of people known as 'supercentenarians' (aged 110 and up). It appears very likely that the secret of those folks' longevity lies in the shield these shells form against cancer, viruses and the like, keeping their owners in excellent health their whole lives

The authors of the research Nobuyoshi Hirose (Centre for Supercentenarian Medical Research, Keio University School of Medicine, Tokyo),Kosuke HashimotoandPiero Carninci (both of Riken Center for Integrative Medical Sciences) wrote toLive Science:'The key will be to understand what is their [these cells'] natural target which may help to reveal what is needed for a healthy, long life.'

The person officially recognized to have lived the longest was FrenchwomanJeanne Calment who passed away in 1997, aged 122.

The census held in Japanin 2015 registered 61,763 of 100-plus-year-old citizens, with only 146 of them having hit 110. In 2018, average life expectancy in the country was 81 year for men and 87, for women.

Hirose, Hashimoto and Carninciused full blood tests from seven supercentenarians, as well as test subjects aged from 50s to 80s, separating immune cells, and, with the help of the single-cell transcriptomics method, monitored the activity of each and every single immune cell, 'reading' the messenger RNA that hundreds of thousands genes created inside each cell, taking DNA's genetic instructions to the cell,where proteins form.

All in all, they got over 41,000 supercentenarian immune cells, and 20,000 from the other five.

According to the researchers, what made supercentenarian immune cells different is that they independently could attack and kill other cells.

The scientists emphasized that this was a very rare sort of cell, admitting to their own surprise. Normally, T helpers give orders to other immune cells, rather than fight. However, these T-helper cells, the CD4 CTLs, are cytotoxic, which means they can, and do, deal with enemies directly.

Interestingly, the group of 50-80 y.o.'s had a much lower concentration (2.8%) of such cells.

Compare to the 25% of super militant cells in supercentenarians - and you will understand why the report published on November 12 in Proceedings (the National Academy of Sciences journal) is sensational.

Does this mean that now scientists can just go ahead and mix up an elixir that will - if not make us ultimately immortal, then, at least - prolong our lives by decades? No. Not yet.

It's a big goal, and big goals need to start small. The researchers have already tried experiments on mice, and seen cytotoxic T cells go for viruses and cancers. Will they be able to observe the same in people?

The collaborators admit they hold their hopes high for learning all about why some people live past 110.

They say the answer may be 'some cancer antigens or some virus protein, but these are all speculations right now.'

The work is in progress. Let's just do our best to stay healthy and wait for the further, hopefully even more baffling, results of this promising research.

Excerpt from:
Scientists Have the Key to Living Past 110, and They Aren't Letting it Slip - Asgardia Space News