A Selective Destruction Theory of Aging

At present the research community cannot robustly connect underlying causative processes of aging, such as those described in the SENS view of damage and rejuvenation, or some of the hallmarks of aging, to higher level manifestations of aging, such as declining function or changing biomarkers associated with age-related disease. This gives great freedom to theorize on how exactly the present voluminous but disconnected body of data on aging, cellular biochemistry, and age-related disease all fits together. There is no shortage of theories of aging, and no sign that the research community will cease to create new ones at any point in the near future. Some are quite interesting, as in the case here, regardless of what might think of the likelihood of such mechanisms playing an important role in degenerative aging. We recently published selective destruction theory (SDT), which suggests a mechanism of ageing which is both independent of accumulating damage and consistent with epigenetic rejuvenation. We argue that in multicellular organisms, neighbouring cells are in constant competition. When mutations arise that increase a cell's growth rate, they bestow a selective advantage (an extreme example would be cancer, but most will not be). If these cells are uncontrolled, their growth advantage will allow them to spread, and their overactive metabolism could result in a host of detrimental or even lethal overactivity disorders. For example, in β-cells where growth is tied...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs