Liver ATF4 Upregulation Common to Many of the Reliable Means of Slowing Aging in Mice

There are a score or more ways to reliably slow aging in mice, methods that include a few classes of drug, various single gene alterations, and calorie restriction. The most exceptional of these methods extends life by 60% or so, but most are in the much more modest 10-20% range at best. It is suspected that many of these approaches operate on a smaller overlapping set of underlying processes, but at different entry points: metabolism is a very, very complex system of interactions and feedback loops, and it is near impossible to make any change in isolation. Any given portion of our biochemistry distinct enough to be given a name and studied might consist of dozens of proteins at its core, and interact with hundreds more in ways that are important when considering the pace of aging. To pick one example, increased levels of the cellular housekeeping processes called autophagy show up in many ways of slowing aging in lower animals. Some of the methods of slowing aging may only work at all because they happen to influence cells into taking better care of themselves, but that influence doesn't have to be in any way direct. Some alterations to mitochondria known to extend life in nematode worms slightly raise the generated levels of damaging reactive oxygen species emitted by mitochondrial processes, and that in turn causes cells to react with greater housekeeping vigor for a net gain. Much the same net gain might also be achieved by more direct manipulations that increase level...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs