An Interview With Vladimir Skulachev

I recently noticed a two-part interview with researcher Vladimir Skulachev on a Russian language medical news site. Long-time readers will recognize the name in connection with work on plastoquinone-based mitochondrially targeted antioxidants: Skulachev's group produces the SkQ series of compounds that in recent years have been shown to generate benefits and extend life in mice. These are noteworthy for working though dietary intake, rather than requiring injection like the SS class of mitochondrially targeted antioxidants. Mitochondrially targeted antioxidants are thought to work by soaking up a usefully large portion of the reactive oxygen species (ROS) produced by mitochondria in cells at their source, before they can cause harm to cellular structures - and especially before they can damage mitochondrial DNA. Progressively accumulated oxidative damage to mitochondrial DNA is widely considered to be an important contribution to degenerative aging, per the mitochondrial free radical theory of aging. Like many Russian biogerontologists, Skulachev is on the programmed aging side of the fence, seeing aging as more of an evolved genetic program that causes damage rather than as a matter of accumulated damage that causes systems to change as they head down the path toward failure. This is far from a trivial difference, as it informs the strategies that researchers adopt in attempts to remove degenerative aging from the human condition - the wrong choice leads down an expensive ...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Tags: Healthy Life Extension Community Source Type: blogs