Wary of the Beautiful Fairy Tale of Near Term Rejuvenation

One might compare this interview with researcher Leonid Peshkin to last year's discussion with Vadim Gladyshev. There is a spectrum of caution and pessimism regarding near term progress towards rejuvenation; the pessimists in the research and development communities are not all alike in their viewpoints, and nor do they all have the same take on the complexity of cellular metabolism as a hurdle to progress.

If a researcher thinks that small molecule drugs or gene therapies to alter the operation of metabolism into a state in which aging is slowed are the only way forward, then yes, it is reasonable to consider that progress will be slow and incremental. Metabolism is far from fully mapped, and thus the detailed progression of aging is also full of unknowns. Yet why take the hard path when there is an easier way forward? The whole point of the SENS approach to aging, based upon repair of root cause damage, is to bypass this complexity and lack of knowledge. Remove the known and well-catalogued damage at the root of aging, and a sizable fraction of the consequences will be repaired by the normal processes of tissue maintenance; we know this because we have the example of youthful individuals and their metabolism to draw on.

Of course, it is then possible to debate whether or not the short-term repair projects that can be achieved in the next ten to twenty years will produce large enough gains in life expectancy to enable people to live to see success in the long-t...

Source: Fight Aging! - January 10, 2019 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Healthy Life Extension Community Source Type: blogs