Category Archives: Human Longevity

Researchers studied the unique genetic patterns of the bowhead whale The world's longest-lived mammal with a lifespan of more than 200 years Identified unique genes that help them avoid diseases, including cancer And now scientists wants to use genes to prolong human life

By Khaleda Rahman for MailOnline

Published: 13:44 EST, 4 January 2015 | Updated: 17:59 EST, 5 January 2015

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Scientists may have found the key to prolonging human life after discovering the genes that give the world's longest lived mammals a lifespan of more than 200 years.

By studying the genetic patterns of the bowhead whale, researchers found the unique genes linked to resisting cancer and repairing DNA damage.

Most mammals die well before reaching the age of 100, but scientists have long tried to understand how bowheads outlive other whales species andavoid illnesses including heart disease and cancer.

Scientists may have discovered the key to prolonging human life after studying the genes of bowhead whales

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Secret to long life for humans may lie in DNA of the bowhead whale that lives for 200 years

Scientists are hoping the fountain of youth might be hidden inside a whale species that can live up to 200 years.

Joao Pedro de Magalhaes and his team at the University of Liverpool sequenced the genome of the bowhead whale, the longest living mammal on earth. The team wanted to understand why they live so long and don't succumb to some of the same illnesses as humans do earlier in life.

"One of the big mysteries of biology is understanding species differences including species differences in aging," Magalhaes told CBS News.

"For example, mice age 20 to 30 times faster than human beings and we don't know why ... Even primates which are closely related to us age considerably faster than human beings," he said. "There has to be some genetic basis to why humans age slower than chimpanzees for instance which are very genetically very similar to us. Likewise, there has to be some genetic basis as to why bowhead whales live so long and appear protected from diseases."

With a 1,000 times more cells than a human, the whale should have a much higher probability of cell death and disease. It doesn't.

In their findings published in the journal Cell Reports, the team found as many as 80 candidate genes that may help protect the whale from cancer or contribute to it being the longest living mammal on earth. The team found that the whales have genes related to DNA repair, as well as those regulating how cells proliferate, that differ from those found in humans.

"We know DNA damage and DNA mutation are important for cancer. So when we find genes related to DNA repair and DNA damage responses, we think maybe this could be involved in longevity and disease resistance of the bowhead," Magalheas said. "In that sense, you don't find a fountain of youth in the genome but you find some promising leads."

There is a huge industry searching for that elixir which could help humans live longer. Some research has gone into finding what is called longevity genes that could lead to new drug therapies while other research promotes such things as exercise and healthy eating to extend your life.

Two groups which funded most of the whale research -- the Life Extension Foundation and the Methuselah Foundation -- are seeking that magic potion. Life Extension focuses on such things as hormonal and nutritional supplements to fight aging while Methuselah is heavily invested in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine "to create a world where 90 year olds can be as health as 50 year olds, by 2030."

Methuselah's co-founder and CEO Dave Gobel said it invested in the whale research as part of its "hypothesis that the best way to find out how to become longevity outliers is to study those who already are genetic outliers within mammalian species" and then find "what genetic complexes, pathways seem most common among these outliers and to explore what they do, how they act, and what if any advantages can be derived from them to apply in humans."

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Could a 200-year-old whale offer clues to help humans live longer?

In The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, Marvin the robot is left outside the time machine and has to wait for millions of years while his friends travel through millennia in an instant. But far from relishing his long life, Marvin is thrown into depression: The first ten million years were the worst. And the second ten million: they were the worst, too. The third ten million I didn't enjoy at all. After that, I went into a bit of a decline.

Philosopher Martin Heidegger argues that we need the threat of death to motivate us to do anything. If we could live forever, we wouldnt fill our time by completing PhDs and travelling the world, but would spend eternity waiting lazily for the next millennium to get started on our life goals. Two hundred years is still finite, so we might manage to make headway in a career eventually, but those extra 120 years may not make any difference to lifetime achievements. The only hope is that there are enough box sets to last us.

Obsolescence

In ten years time, the 15-year-old geeks who are glued to their smart watches will bring their coding skills to the working world, shunting older employees even further down the pecking order. Those who were born without childhood access to iPhones and the internet cannot keep pace with the fast-paced habits of the next generation, and so well be displaced by their computer-focused minds. Anyone over the age of 30 has felt a creeping sense of obsolescence, so once youre into triple figures, prepare to enjoy existence as a living antique.

Generational conflict

Overcrowding problems will begin in the home as families struggle to maintain the peace between five generations of relatives. Seventy-year-olds may be fond of their grandkids, but the fourth generation of screaming youngsters are more of an annoyance than blessing. And the value of blood relatives cant outweigh the frustration of dealing with great-great-great uncle Alberts centuries-old values. Playing happy families is difficult enough with three generations lets not make it any harder.

The end of romance

Marriages are already under the strain from our ever-increasing lifespan. As 60-somethings realise that theyve still got another 20 or 30 years to endure alongside their significant other, the silver splitters have helped bump up divorce rates later in life. A 200-year lifespan would firmly destroy any lasting fantasies of romance, as made-for-each-other soul mates struggle to find the conversation to fill the evenings of 170 years of monogamy. If we want to live to be 200, well have to kiss goodbye to the idea of true love. Marriage is for decades, not for centuries.

The practical matters of population growth, retirement, and the inevitable extension of childhood into the mid-40s make the matter of extending life seem even more grim. But from the perspective of personal happiness, we should give up hopes of defying death and be content with our eighty-odd years. Life is short, and we should keep it that way while enjoying what we can of it. The horror of a 200th birthday part is a fate worse than death.

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A 200-year life is a fate worse than death

The year began with a landmark event. A decade after the first human genome was decoded at a cost of about $3 billion, the sequencing-machine company Illumina, of San Diego, introduced a new model, the Hyseq X-10, that can do it for around $1,000 per genome.

The system, which costs $10 million and can decode 20,000 genomes a year, was snapped up by large research labs, startup firms like J. Craig Venters Human Longevity (which plans to sequence 40,000 people a year), and even by the British government (the U.K. is the first country with a national genome sequencing project).

Francis de Souza, Illuminas president, predicted that within two years the genomes of about 1.6 million people will have been sequenced.

Cheap sequencing means a deluge of information and a new role for technology designed to handle and exploit big data. The search giant Google was the tech company most attuned to the trend, launching a scientific project to collect biological data about healthy humans, and offering to store any genome on its servers for $25 per year. A coalition of genetics researchers backed by Google tried to introduce technical standards, like those that govern the Web, as a way of organizing an Internet of DNA over which researchers might share data.

Easy access to DNA information led to debates over how much consumers should know. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has said direct-to-consumer genetic health tests arent yet ready to be marketed. But consumers found ways to get the data anyway. Thousands of people headed to unregulated corners of the Internet to learn about their genes, and one father even managed to sequence the DNA of his own unborn son, claiming a controversial first.

Easily the hottest technology of the year was a new gene-engineering method called CRISPR, a powerful new editing system for DNA. Chinese scientists used it to produce genetically altered monkeys in January, and other scientists are now expected to create monkeys that model human psychiatric diseases. One measure of the technologys importance is that scientists are now fighting over who really invented it firstand who should own the patent on it.

During the year, bioengineers advanced on all fronts using other technologies. We saw novel kinds of cell therapy used to treat degenerative eye diseases, positive results from a study of gene therapy that could cure HIV, and the resurgence of a form of gene therapy called RNA interference. The development of replacement organs took steps forward, too, including new research showing how to add blood vessels to lab-made tissue using a 3-D printer and a move toward large-scale production of artificial tracheas.

This year, 10 of 35 new drugs approved by the FDA were biological molecules, like antibodies or protein injections. That was a record. And the FDA says the list of new drugs entering testing for the first time is dominated by biological treatments.

Those biotech drugs include the most important medical breakthroughs of the year, a new class of cancer drugs called immunotherapies. The drug company Merck has been testing an antibody that helps the immune system recognize melanoma cancer cellswith near miraculous results for some patients. The other approach to immune therapy involves rengineering a persons white blood cellsto recognize and kill certain kinds of leukemia tumors.

Bioengineering doesnt stop at DNA. The U.S. BRAIN Initiative, President Obamas signature science project, has the aim of developing emerging neurotechnologies for measuring the brain and eventually figuring out the neural code. The broad approach of the U.S. project contrasts with that taken in Europe, where funding has been directed toward one mega-project to create computer simulations of the brain, something that drew sharp fire from dissenting neuroscientists.

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2014 in Biomedicine: Rewriting DNA, Decoding the Brain, and a GMO Paradox

Albany, NY (PRWEB) December 29, 2014

The 2014 edition of the animal health market report is based on the premise that animals suffer from an increasing number of diseases, just as human beings do; it is imperative that they receive timely and proper care from not just qualified veterinarians, but also from pet owners and farmers/livestock herders.

View Full report at http://www.marketresearchreports.biz/analysis/234394

The report segments the animal health market based on species: food producing animals and companion animals. The former refers to animals that provide meat and dairy, namely, swine, sheep, bovines, poultry, and fish. On the other hand, companion animals include species such as cats, dogs, fish, horses and others that are kept as pets by people. The report observes that the animal health industry strives to introduce products and medicines that are geared toward helping animals enjoy a disease-free and active lifestyle and increase their longevity. Thus, the products that are offered by companies operating within the animal health market are formulated to achieve this end in all types of animals be it companion animals, livestock or even wild animals.

The key products within the animal health market are: Vaccines, pharmaceuticals and medicinal feed additives. Of these, the pharmaceuticals segment is the leader as far as revenue is concerned. It contributes significantly by creating products that improve the health and longevity of both companion animals and livestock.

Download Detail Report With Complete TOC at http://www.marketresearchreports.biz/sample/sample/234394

According to the findings of the report, the segment of veterinary healthcare has witnessed significant development (by revenue) because of a slew of factors working together. For instance, the growing economic development of a number of countries has resulted in higher per capita income, which ultimately gives consumers the benefit of higher disposable income. With this, consumers have reported higher pet ownership this in turn leads to a greater demand for better and more effective nutrition products, especially protein for animals. Pet owners are careful about what their pets consume and do not hesitate from spending more on quality/organic products. At the same time, farmers invest in quality medicines and nutraceuticals to improve the productivity of farm animals (milk, eggs, meat etc.), as well as the quality of their meat.

Explore All Published Reports by Koncept Analytics at http://www.marketresearchreports.biz/publisher/24

The report analyzes the global animal health market, with a focus on the trends that will promote higher development of the market. The key markets that are discussed in the report are: the United States, the United Kingdom, and China. All of these developed countries hold massive potential for the animal health market. This report also profiles the three major players in the animal health industry, namely, Merck, Zoetis, and Elli Lilly.

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Global Animal Health Market 2014 Report Available Online By MarketResearchReports.Biz

Get to Know Your Gerontologist
Aubrey de Grey, known for his sagely beard and sometimes controversial ideas on the future of human longevity, stresses the need for gerontologists like hims...

By: World Science Festival

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Get to Know Your Gerontologist - Video

Regular doses of a common over-the-counter painkiller may lead to a longer, healthier life, researchers have found.

In a study published Thursday in the journal Public Library of Science-Genetics, researchers treated bakers yeast, worms and flies with ibuprofen and saw that the treatment added about 15 percent more to the species lives. The treatment dose was comparable to the recommended human dose, and the results equated to another dozen or so human years of healthy living.

"We first used baker's yeast, which is an established aging model, and noticed that the yeast treated with ibuprofen lived longer," researcher Dr. Michael Polymenis, an AgriLife Research biochemist in College Station, said in a news release. "Then we tried the same process with worms and flies, and saw the same extended lifespan. Plus, these organisms not only lived longer but also appeared healthy." Healthiness in worms was observed as thrashing a lot and faster pumping when swallowing.

The three-year project showed that ibuprofen interferes with yeast cells ability to pick up tryptophan an amino acid found in every cell of every organism and that is essential for humans, who get it from protein sources. Researchers arent sure why the ibuprofen worked, but noted that its worth further exploration.

"This study was a proof of principle to show that common, relatively safe drugs in humans can extend the lifespan of very diverse organisms. Therefore, it should be possible to find others like ibuprofen with even better ability to extend lifespan, with the aim of adding healthy years of life in people," Polymenis, who is also a professor in the biochemistry and biophysics department at Texas A&M University, said in the news release.

Ibuprofen was created in England in the early 1960s and first made available by prescription before becoming available over-the-counter in the 1980s. The nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug is used to relieve pain, help with fever and reduce inflammation.

Polymenis collaborated with Dr. Brian Kennedy, president and CEO of the Buck Institute for Research on Aging, in Novato, Calif., along with several researchers from Russia and the University of Washington.

According to Kennedy, the Buck Institutes research is also beginning to identify other drugs that affect aging. The studies were done in his lab after Polymenis reached out, wanting to see how his cell cycle analysis corresponded with the Buck Institutes aging studies.

"Our institute is interested in finding out why people get sick when they get old. We think that by understanding those processes, we can intervene and find ways to extend human health span, keeping people healthier longer and slowing down aging. That's our ultimate goal, Kennedy said in the news release.

Looking deeper into the common drugs that target individual diseases may shed light on understanding the aging process, lead study author Chong He, a postdoctoral fellow at Buck Institute, said in the news release.

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Ibuprofen may improve longevity, study suggests

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

16-Dec-2014

Contact: David Salisbury david.salisbury@vanderbilt.edu 615-343-6803 Vanderbilt University @vanderbiltu

We humans have an exceptional age structure compared to other animals: Our children remain dependent on their parents for an unusually long period and our elderly live an extremely long time after they have stopped procreating.

Could the microscopic fellow travelers that consider the human body to be their home - collectively known as the microbiome - have played an active role in shaping and maintaining this unusual aspect of human nature?

That is the speculative proposition advanced by Martin Blaser, professor of medicine and microbiology at NYU's Langone Medical Center, and supported by mathematical models produced by Glenn Webb, professor of mathematics at Vanderbilt University. They present their argument in a paper titled, "Host demise as a beneficial function of indigenous microbiota in human hosts," published online today in mBio, the journal of the American Society for Microbiology.

Scientists have known for a long time that every species of plant and animal acts as host for a distinctive collection of microorganisms. The human microbiome consists of about 100 trillion microbial cells, outnumbering the much larger human cells by about 10 to 1. Until recently they thought that the influence these microscopic communities have on their hosts was extremely limited. But recent research has found that their influence extends well beyond aiding digestion and producing bodily odors; they also aid brain development, reproduction and defense against infection. Taken together, the new evidence has led to the hologenomic theory of evolution, which proposes that the object of Darwin's natural selection is not just the individual organism as he proposed, but the organism plus its associated microbial community.

Blaser got the idea for the impact of microbes on human age structure from his lifetime research on Helicobacter pylori, a bacterium found in the stomach of more than 50 percent of the world's population.

H. pylori co-exists peacefully in people's stomachs for most of their lives. It even has some beneficial effects. In 1996, for example, Blaser discovered that it may help regulate levels of stomach acid. However, H. pylori is also a major cause of stomach cancer, a risk that increases with age.

"I began thinking that a real symbiont is an organism that keeps you alive when you are young and kills you when you are old. That's not particularly good for you, but it's good for the species," Blaser said.

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Microbiome may have shaped early human populations

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

16-Dec-2014

Contact: Garth Hogan ghogan@asmusa.org American Society for Microbiology @ASMnewsroom

WASHINGTON, DC--December 16, 2014--Using mathematical modeling, researchers at New York and Vanderbilt universities have shown that commensal bacteria that cause problems later in life most likely played a key role in stabilizing early human populations. The finding, published in mBio, the online open-access journal of the American Society for Microbiology, offers an explanation as to why humans co-evolved with microbes that can cause or contribute to cancer, inflammation, and degenerative diseases of aging.

The work sprung from a fundamental question in biology about senescence, or aging past the point of reproduction. "Nature has a central problem--it must have a way to remove old individuals, whether fish or trees or people," says Martin Blaser, microbiologist at New York University Langone Medical Center in New York City. "Resources are always limited. And young guys are ultimately competing with older ones."

In most species, individuals die shortly after the reproductive phase. But humans are weird--we have an extra long senescence phase. Blaser began to think about the problem from the symbiotic microbe's point of view and he came up with a hypothesis: "The great symbionts keep us alive when we are young, then after reproductive age, they start to kill us." They are part of the biological clock of aging.

In other words, he hypothesized that evolution selected for microbes that keep the whole community of hosts healthy, even if that comes with a cost to an individual host's health.

Modeling of early human population dynamics could tell him if he was on the right track. Blaser worked together with his collaborator Glenn Webb, professor of mathematics at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, to define a mathematical model of an early human population, giving it characteristics similar to a time 500-100,000 years ago, when the human population consisted of sparse, isolated communities.

Webb came up with a non-linear differential equation to describe the variables involved, their rates of change over time, and the relationship between those rates. "It can reveal something that's not quite appreciated or intuitive, because it sorts out relationships changing in time," even with many variables, such as age-dependent fertility rates and mortality rates, changing simultaneously, explains Webb.

Using this baseline model, the team could tweak the conditions to see what happened to the population dynamics. For example, they increased the fertility rate from roughly six children per female to a dozen, proposing that this might be one way for populations to overcome the burden of senescence, by boosting juvenile numbers. Instead, they were surprised to see that this created wild oscillations in total population size over time--an unstable scenario.

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Commensal bacteria were critical shapers of early human populations

The Alamance County Board of Commissioners will decide Monday whether to restore cuts made to county employees longevity pay in fiscal 2013-14.

For fiscal 2014-15, the county commissioners eliminated the longevity pay program completely for county employees. Instead, about $500,000 was added to the base pay of employees who would have received longevity pay.

Employees longevity pay in December 2013 received a 55 percent cut based on a formula the county commissioners adopted. The approved 55 percent cut saved the county $613,447, which was placed in a contingency fund. The boards vote in 2013 was 3-2 to cut longevity pay by 55 percent.

In December 2012, $980,000 in longevity pay was distributed to county employees who had five years, 10 years, 15 years and 20 years of service. The county adopted the former longevity payment plan in April 2001.

Before the longevity pay cuts were made in 2013, the county conducted a study of other counties longevity pay programs. County Manager Craig Honeycutt said he plans to provide the board with updated information about other counties and what it would cost to restore the countys 55 percent cut.

County Human Resources Director Sherry Hook said she didnt believe a formal document was created and presented to the previous board with information based on the initial longevity pay study of other counties.

I remember that our longevity plan was a little more generous than those counties we reviewed, and I think thats all that we communicated to the board, Hook said.

COMMISSIONER LINDA Massey said she would like to see the 55 percent cut restored as soon as possible. Massey and former Commissioner Tom Manning voted against making the cut in 2013. She didnt believe the county treated its employees fairly when it made the cut then and that now is the time to restore it since the county could afford it.

Newly elected Commissioner Bob Byrd is also in favor of restoring the 55 percent cut now depending on Honeycutts report Monday. Byrd said he wanted to see the cut restored for this budget year only. Byrd said the issue should be revisited in the boards 2015-16 budget talks in conjunction with the results of the countys pay and classification study currently being conducted by the Piedmont Triad Regional Council. The study is projected to be completed by March.

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Commissioners consider longevity pay