A 25% increase in healthy lifespan in mice, by genetic surgery. It’s unclear, though, if this can be done to existing phenotypes.
[Update a while later]
Here’s a more interesting take from Ed Yong.
[Update a few minutes later]
OK, they do actually seem to be clearing senescent cells from normal mice. This is pretty exciting stuff.
Mice living ten times as long with their reproductive rates could be the next plague on mankind. Hopefully none of these escape the lab.
= killer bees
It’s confusing: there’s no indication of _how_ they would remove senescent cells from normal mice. I’m guessing they just mean: as opposed to the fast-aging mice. If so, they still needed genetically engineered normal-aging mice, that react to the medicine by killing senescent cells.
Not so easy to adopt for humans, yet.
“It’s confusing: there’s no indication of _how_ they would remove senescent cells from normal mice. I’m guessing they just mean: as opposed to the fast-aging mice.”
From the 2nd link:
“In 2011, the team developed a way of singling out and removing those cells. Senescent cells are characterized by a protein called p16. Baker and van Deursen genetically engineered their fast-aging mice so that they would destroy all their p16-bearing cells when they received a specific drug. The results were dramatic: The senescent cells disappeared, and though the rodents still died earlier, they were bigger, fitter, and healthier when they did. Even old mice, whose bodies had started to decline, showed improvements.”
And:
“Using the same technique, Baker and van Deursen took normal middle-aged mice and purged their senescent cells twice a week. This time, the process increased the rodents’ average lifespan by a quarter. And as they got older, they lost less body fat, had healthier hearts and kidneys, developed fewer cataracts, and stayed more active. The team tested large numbers of mice of both sexes, from two genetic strains, and raised on two different diets—and the results were always the same.”
So they tried it with normal mice and got the longevity extension effect, to the tune of 25%. The fast aging mice actually didn’t live longer when given the effect, but did seem to age better.
Indeed. But note that “trying it with normal mice” still means genetic engineering their cells. I don’t _think_ they have any technique for doing it with a living mouse, or a living human being. You need to start before they’re born.