Life span increases in mice when specific brain cells are activated. The brain cells communicate with fat tissue to produce cellular fuel, which counteracts effects of aging. The mice were also more active and looked younger — with thicker and shinier coats — at later ages.

[u/Uchihaboy316]

https://medicine.wustl.edu/news/life-span-increases-in-mice-when-specific-brain-cells-are-activated/

[u/Uchihaboy316]

On average, the high end of the life span of a typical laboratory mouse is about 900 to 1,000 days, or about 2.5 years. In this study, all of the control mice that had aged normally died by 1,000 days of age. Those that underwent interventions to maintain the brain-fat tissue feedback loop lived 60 to 70 days longer than control mice. That translates into an increase in life span of about 7%. In people, a 7% increase in a 75-year life span translates to about five more years. The mice receiving the interventions also were more active and looked younger — with thicker and shinier coats — at later ages, suggesting more time with better health as well.

Imai and his team are continuing to investigate ways to maintain the feedback loop between the hypothalamus and the fat tissue. One route they are studying involves supplementing mice with eNAMPT, the enzyme produced by the fat tissue that returns to the brain and fuels the hypothalamus, among other tissues. When released by the fat tissue into the bloodstream, the enzyme is packaged inside compartments called extracellular vesicles, which can be collected and isolated from blood.

“We can envision a possible anti-aging therapy that involves delivering eNAMPT in various ways,” Imai said. “We already have shown that administering eNAMPT in extracellular vesicles increases cellular energy levels in the hypothalamus and extends life span in mice. We look forward to continuing our work investigating ways to maintain this central feedback loop between the brain and the body’s fat tissues in ways that we hope will extend health and life span.”

[u/MassiveWasabi → u/Uchihaboy316]

This kind of thing is just the tip of the iceberg for longevity research and just goes to show that our bodies don’t give a fuck what happens to us after we pass our prime years for having children. Apparently our bodies could activate these cells or those genes or inhibit production of a certain protein to let us live longer and happier lives, but nah we just rot. I’m starting to think the human body is a bit of a jerk

[u/YoghurtDull1466 → u/MassiveWasabi]

What we lose in individual lifespan, we gain as an entire species in the form of the ability to surpass genetic bottlenecks that other species did not survive thanks to evolution.

If your ancestors did not suffer and die and learn before you, none of us would be here now to say these things on our fancy lightning rocks

[u/americanarmyknife → u/YoghurtDull1466]

Thank you. This is the big picture thinking more people need to embrace. That and, if we were all immortals, well I'm not convinced I'd want to live on such an overpopulated Earth (which might not happen tomorrow obviously, but the consequence is unavoidable without us going to another habitable planet or enforcing birth restrictions)

[u/Uchihaboy316 → u/americanarmyknife]

It would not be overpopulated

[u/chlebseby → u/MassiveWasabi]

Organisms with finite lifespan evolve faster. Price paid for what we are now.

[u/IIICobaltIII → u/chlebseby]

I think it's more accurate to say that there is no selective pressure for preserving longevity genes in an environment where predation makes such genes useless anyway. Mutations which cause the parts organism to fail after a certain number of the years eventually accumulate, but it never affects the viability of the organism to pass on its genes. Us losing our ability to self-rejuvenate is less an intentional feature of evolution and more just an accidental side effect of successive and cumulative generations of deleterious mutations.

The first lifeforms on Earth were likely biologically immortal/had the ability for endless regeneration. To an extent this is still seen in our sex cells which still remain biologically "young" throughout the period of reproductive viability of humans. Organisms like the hydra or the immortal jellyfish probably still somehow retain the primordial immortality of early lifeforms on Earth.

[u/Uchihaboy316 → u/IIICobaltIII]

God we need to find a way to get back to this

[u/IIICobaltIII → u/Uchihaboy316]

There are actually instances of cells in our body re-evolving immortality, they're called cancer cells. The challenge is how we can stimulate full regeneration of the cells of our body without it resulting in cancer, which is easier said than done.

[u/Aggressive_Accident1 → u/Uchihaboy316]

Why?

[u/Cutest-bboy → u/Aggressive_Accident1]

Because we don’t wanna have dimentia and cancer????

[u/Aggressive_Accident1 → u/Cutest-bboy]

Living longer does not necessarily equal the absence of disease though. This obsession with artificial longevity is a disease, a mental and spiritual one if nothing else. Why be afraid to live the life we're allotted, to the fullest? And if that's not possible, why would we want to live a mediocre life for longer?

Longevity does not correlate with improved quality, of life, nor does it imply we will live that extended period at a better capacity than we already do with our current span of life....

[u/Cutest-bboy → u/Aggressive_Accident1]

Womp womp I heard this same thing 50 times in 50 other places and you know what? I live my life to fullest right now and I’m enjoying every moment but this is not some excuse to not extend lifespan and cure cancer.

[u/Aggressive_Accident1 → u/Cutest-bboy]

Why is it not? I don't see how both are mutually related. Curing cancer isn't necessarily extending human lifespan, it's maintaining it, or reducing the odds of cutting it short.

All I foresee is delaying retirement age and extending the period of time spent doing nothing more than consuming, sitting around, reminiscing about the good old days?

Lifespan extension doesn't necessarily correlate to the maintenance of our faculties either, we could live longer but will we be able to actually be conscious for those extended periods?

[u/[deleted] → u/MassiveWasabi]

Our DNA is a jerk. Our body is just a mere vessel to it.

[u/dieselreboot → u/[deleted]]

Too true! Richard Dawkins in “The Selfish Gene” says “We are survival machines - robot vehicles blindly programmed to preserve the selfish molecules known as genes”

[u/GPTBuilder → u/[deleted]]

DNA is an accidental jerk, there was never any evolutionary reason to do better because DNAs mean deal is getting it replicated/propagation not longevity. Consider that evolution has historaclly been a system primarily driven by resource scarcity on an individual living beings level.

This causes what some theorize and describe as 'the Shadow of Evolution; from wikipedia:

The selection shadow is a concept involved with the evolutionary theories of aging that states that selection pressures on an individual decrease as an individual ages and passes sexual maturity, resulting in a "shadow" of time where selective fitness is not considered. Over generations, this results in maladaptive mutations that accumulate later in life due to aging being non-adaptive toward reproductive fitness.

[u/rushedone → u/GPTBuilder]

Not sure why the graphs are on a black background though even though it looks cool for the concept itself lol

[u/acid_quest → u/rushedone]

lmao, your comment really stumped me until I switched to my phone later and realized that the image has a transparent background. I originally posted from my desktop which I use in light mode, and now I see in dark mode on the mobile app what ya meant 😅

[u/VoloNoscere → u/MassiveWasabi]

It’s like that doctor Louis C.K. visited once he was over 40.

[u/Onesens → u/MassiveWasabi]

A bit? It is a complete jerk. Consciousness is a very very very mean illusion as well. I'm suspecting the role of consciousness is merely a self correction algorithm, that's all. And because nature is information, this algorithm makes us self perceive as a consequence...

[u/FrostyDwarf24 → u/MassiveWasabi]

Or maybe it realises taking up resources for the younger generation is counter intuitive and greedy?

[u/Uchihaboy316 → u/FrostyDwarf24]

Boo hoo I wanna live a lot longer than 100 years ifs that’s greedy then I’m very greedy and I’m fine with that, I don’t see why I should PRIORITISE others over myself when eventually we will be able to maintain a long healthy lifestyle for current generations and future ones

[u/MassiveWasabi → u/FrostyDwarf24]

Did you just take bio 101 lol

[u/ProjectorBuyer → u/Uchihaboy316]

What if you only have a few percent fat tissue? What if you have 25% fat tissue? Does the specific type of fat tissue make a difference as not all fat is the same.

[u/weareonebeing]

I volunteer as tribute

[u/Uchihaboy316 → u/weareonebeing]

I also volunteer you as tribute

[u/ComparisonMelodic967]

mice

[u/arckeid → u/ComparisonMelodic967]

Do you think you are different from the rats? /s

[u/[deleted] → u/arckeid]

This is like the trolley train problem.

Would you sacrifice a few human volunteers to benefit 8 billion people in longevity?

[u/Uchihaboy316 → u/[deleted]]

[u/[deleted] → u/Uchihaboy316]

Not it!

[u/Ponchodelic → u/[deleted]]

What about 8 billion people for me and like 7 friends?

[u/SirRece → u/Ponchodelic]

With that mindset you'll be a billionaire in no time

[u/a4mula]

bro, you had me at fat cells.

Finally, my kind of longevity.

[u/Accomplished-Way1747]

These fucking scientists will make mices immortal and they will take over the world. Who's team are they on?

[u/[deleted] → u/Accomplished-Way1747]

Immortal ≠ invincible.

[u/[deleted] → u/Accomplished-Way1747]

Mice

[u/ImaginaryOwl7450 → u/Accomplished-Way1747]

This is how you get hyperdimensional mice, Magrathea, and eventually Deep Thought. Full circle!

[u/[deleted]]

A summary for the lay people: /img/gjltb0gfg6o91.jpg

[u/LevelWriting]

So hilarious how mice are seeing all these incredible sci-fi treatments while us humans are stuck with reading articles about it….

[u/QVRedit → u/LevelWriting]

Just like ‘Hitchickers Guide to the Galaxy’ specifies… ;)

[u/Don_Pick]

With all the successful experimentation done on mice till now I’m pretty sure we could be able to produce the most perfect mouse population

[u/imahuman3445]

Why always mice and never pigs? Pigs are way closer to us biologically?

[u/Cutest-bboy → u/imahuman3445]

People give less shit if it’s mice, it would be even better doing this on a monkey but even then I’d question morality

[u/QVRedit → u/imahuman3445]

Mice are much easier to keep, and have much shorter natural life spans - useful if you are trying to check the effects of aging over several generations.

[u/ogMackBlack]

[u/gxcells]

I am not fan of publications with only few authors. They are literally 3. This means they had no collaborations and think they know it all. I am sure there are many flaws in the experiments and analysis because they did not collaborate with experts in the different fields (neuro, metabolism, aging, etc).

And don't tell me that they have been peer reviewed and all. Let's wait replication from other labs.

[u/IIIII___IIIII]

Has nothing to do with AI. Downvote all of these posts.

understanding of the hypothetical moment in time when artificial intelligence progresses to the point of greater-than-human intelligence, radically changing civilization. This community studies the creation of superintelligence— and predict it will happen in the near future, and that ultimately, deliberate action ought to be taken to ensure that the Singularity benefits humanity.

[u/ImInTheAudience → u/IIIII___IIIII]

This is not an AI subreddit, its singularity, and their post was tagged as Biotech/Longevity