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While he was heading to his lab on a sunny day in Texas, molecular biologist Meng Wang still did not know what to expect: tens of thousands of worms, writhing in cartons .
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Aging-related diseases, such as cancer, aging, rheumatism and Alzheimer's disease – kill 100,000 people per day in the world.
The BBC World Service podcast The Inquiry interviewed some of the world's leading researchers on the nature of aging and how modern science can "heal" it. , using microorganisms and organs printed in 3D
A longer life expectancy
What is aging? Over the years, cells, tissues and organs have suffered minor damage. At any time, this damage overlaps throughout the body. "When the body can not keep up with the pace of repairs, aging begins," says Danish doctor Kaare Christensen.
Christensen worked for many years as a doctor until he got tired of caring for the sick. Today, he coordinates the Danish Center for Research on Aging, where he tries to prevent people from getting sick.
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It highlights the advances: in the middle of the century 19 years, life expectancy was about 40 years in most countries. Today, Northern Europe awaits around 80 years and the rest of the world is getting closer to this level. This was largely due to the reduction of infant mortality and not to the prolongation of life.
But important changes have occurred. "People are now reaching older ages in better conditions," says Christensen. "One easy thing to look for is the teeth – you may notice that older people's teeth are better every decade."
Teeth are a kind of indicator of the general state of health, says the researcher. Your condition directly affects our ability to eat well and feed.
Christensen says that people not only reach old age with better teeth, but also with a higher IQ, that it connects with improving ways.
"It's a whole set of better living conditions, better education … and the kind of work you've had," he says.
He believes that progress will continue. But for how long? The record for longevity in the world belongs to the 122-year-old Jeanne Louise Calment. She died in 1997 and a lot has happened since then.
Organ Impression
The biophysicist Tuhin Bhowmick is from a family of doctors in Bangalore, India. He remembers listening to patient dinners that his father or uncles could not save. Whenever he asked why he could not avoid a death, his father replied that there were no more cards left.
"I thought to myself," Well, I'm not going to become a doctor, but someone who is taking the drug, "recalls Bhowmick.
He stated that many deaths due to aging is linked to dysfunction of vital organs such as the heart, lungs or liver.If the patient receives a functional organ from a donor, doctors such as Bhowmick's father may give him a second chance to live. [19659002] Read more: A study shows that 75% of older people depend exclusively on SUS
The problem is that there are more people who need to have bad. Organs as Autonomous Donors In addition to long queues, the organs must be compatible.
To solve the problem, Bhowmick is studying how to use 3D printing to create organs that are not rejected by the body of patients
Instead of using a cartridge of Ink Bhowmick's devices use proteins and cells – and those of the patient, which reduces the risk of rejection of the new organ.
The Bhowmick team has already produced the first artificial tissue of the human liver in India. the next step is to create a miniature liver, which he hopes to achieve in about five years.
Bhowmick imagines this organ as a small portable device out of the body with which users can move. In eight to ten years, he hopes to produce a fully functional liver that can be grafted into the body.
But what happens if a person has a poor organ, does that mean that she is about to die?
"Maybe the liver was down, but not necessarily the brain or the heart.If you had replaced an organ that had caused the death of a patient, he could have lived another 20 years" says -he.
And what is the researcher's bet on how long we can live? With these innovations, he says, if you are a millenium or younger – born in 1981 – there is a good chance that you will live 135 years.
Wisdom of Worms
Meng Wang's grandmother died at 100 years old. years; she was healthy and active until the end of her life.
She is a Professor of Human and Molecular Genetics at Baylor College of Medicine in the United States, where she conducts experiments in one of the most exciting new areas of medicine – our microbiome.
"These are the small microorganisms that live with us, both inside our digestive tract and on the outside of our skin," Wang explains. "They are everywhere in our body."
Most are bacteria, but there are fungi, viruses, and other microbes. In the past, scientists have not paid much attention to it. But we now know that they have a profound effect on our body.
Recent studies show that our microbiome is as important to us as a new organ. It can affect our behavior and even our response to different medications.
To study its potential impact on aging, Wang selected a worm that lasts two to three weeks – a life expectancy short enough to lead a "lifetime experience". And he wondered what would happen if the microbiome of a worm was changed. Would he live longer?
Wang chooses a bacterium that lives in the intestines of the worm. modified their genes and fed them. The researcher badyzed them three weeks later, whereas they should have died. "I made a jump with the result, which was totally unexpected."
Older worms generally show a decline in their physical capacity, but those with the new microbiome have not only moved faster, but have also become less susceptible to disease. . Wang is now testing mice to see if transferring your microbiome also extends your life in a similar way.
Thanks to this, it is possible that one day, doctors can prescribe pills that do the same for us.
Expiry Date
As we have seen in the past, many people say that it was more than 200 or 300 years ago. cells age, they divide to replace cells that die or wear out, but this process is not linear. The more a cell is divided, the more likely it is to become "senescent".
Senescence comes from the Latin word senescere – aging. That is, the cells age and arrive at the end of the cycle of their life cycle. But instead of dying, they act destructively and communicate with the cells around them, causing a host of diseases.
"It's almost as if the old cell was looking around and thought that the other cells were as old as it was," says Lorna Harries, professor of molecular genetics at L & # 39; 39 Exeter University in England.
In this way, senescent cells can "contaminate" other cells with aging. And as we get older, more and more cells become senescent until our body is overloaded.
In his lab, Harries may have found a way to solve this problem. The researcher asked a student she was working with to add chemicals to old skin cells. To track the age of the cells in the experiment, they decided to apply a dye that would make them blue if they were senescent.
"What I expected to see were blue cells," says Harries. "But that's not what happened … they came back to look younger."
Harries did not rely on the result and asked the student to repeat the experiment. She came back with the same result – and again, Harries asked that the process be redone.
The student repeated the case nine times. "Finally, I looked at the situation and thought you might have something interesting here," said Harries.
The experiment rejuvenated old cells and turned them into young cells, making it the first experiment to reverse the aging of human cells. Some find that discovery can be the secret of a much longer life. Harries began receiving phone calls from investors and scientists around the world.
But she is still not very optimistic about the length of our life, because she thinks humans have a maximum useful life. Still, he hopes his research will end with a new generation of anti-degenerative drugs for dementia and cardiovascular disease.
"I hope that it will treat many of these conditions simultaneously, so that people dying prematurely"
Maybe one day we will be able to replace our damaged organs, take supplements who will provide us with a young microbiome and prevent our cells
How old could all this be? If we follow Tuhin Bhowmick's predictions, if you are millennial, you may be able to reach 135 years old. And when we get there – in 2116, if you were born in 1981 – who knows what is possible?
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