cellular sources of dysfunctions, disorders, disabilities, and diseases
•Therapeutic cloning, technologies to develop ample sources of human cells, tissues, and organs for use in acute emergency care as well as the treatment of chronic, debilitating diseases
•Genetic engineering and genomics, advancements that permit the identification and alteration of genetics to ameliorate dysfunctions, disorders, disabilities, and diseases
•Nanotechnology, deploying micro- and molecular-sized tools to manipulate human tissue biology for microsurgical repair on a gross level, as well as microscopic nano-biology for repair at the most basic cellular level
Today, thanks to the Pharma pipeline14 of 465 drugs “targeted on 10 chronic conditions in seniors,” most adults in developed nations enjoy lifespans of around 80 years. With progress in stem cells, DNA repair, and telomerase, by 2029 lifespans of 120 years are realistically foreseeable. As genomic medicine and artificial organ technologies advance, by 2050 to 2095 we may achieve the 150 year lifespan. Past that, machine-based human enhancements may herald living 200-plus, disease-free years.
Lab Models of Aging Intervention
A drug originally designed to suppress the immune system in organ transplant recipients, rapamycin is shown in lab models to exert life-extending properties. The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (Texas, USA) team observed15 that rapamycin increased the lifespan of male and female C57BL/6J mice by 11 to 16%, most likely by reducing the increase in the hazard for mortality.
Researchers from the Buck Institute of Aging (California, USA) successfully and markedly amplified16 the lifespan of Caenorhabditis elegans (earthworm). The team altered two genetic pathways via a “combination of mutations in daf-2 and rsks-1 [to produce] a nearly 5-fold increase in longevity that is much greater than the sum of single mutations.” The worms lived to the human equivalent of 500 years.
Scientists from the University of California/Los Angeles (UCLA; California, USA) identified17 a gene that slows the aging process through the entire body. Activating the AMPK gene induces autophagy, a cellular recycling process. When AMPK is activated in the intestine or nervous system of Drosophila (fruit flies), “we see the aging process is slowed beyond the organ system in which the gene is activated.”
Delayed aging could increase life expectancy by an additional 2.2 years, most of which would be spent in good health. Observing that: “Recent scientific advances suggest that slowing the aging process (senescence) is now a realistic goal … Yet most medical research remains focused on combating individual diseases,” Dana Goldman, from the University of Southern California (USC; California, USA), and colleagues submit18 that research to delay aging and the infirmities of old age would have better population health and economic returns, as compared to advances in individual fatal diseases such as cancer and heart disease. Using the Future Elderly Model – a microsimulation of the future health and spending of older Americans – the researchers compared optimistic "disease specific" scenarios with a hypothetical "delayed aging" scenario in terms of the scenarios' impact on longevity, disability, and major entitlement program costs. The team found that delayed aging could increase life expectancy by an additional 2.2 years, most of which would be spent in good health, with the economic value of delayed aging estimated to be $7.1 trillion over fifty years. The study authors that: “Overall, greater investment in research to delay aging appears to be a highly efficient way to forestall disease, extend healthy life, and improve public health.”
Anti-Aging Medicine’s Prominent Adopters
Multinational companies are pouring billions of dollars into anti-aging medical technologies. In particular, Silicon Valley has engaged significant resources.
Google backs privately held 23andMe, which offers a DNA test for consumers who can secure genetic reports and ancestry-related data. In 2013 by Google’s CEO and co-founder, Larry Page – 40 years old at the time, founded Calico (California Life Company) with $1 billion in start-up funding. Describing its goal as “focusing on the challenge of aging and associated diseases.” Page has observed19 that: “With some longer term, moonshot thinking around healthcare and biotechnology, I believe we can improve millions of lives.” Calico is headed by Art Levinson, former CEO of Genetech, a highly successful biotech company specializing in cancer therapies.
In mid-2014, Calico forged20,21 a 10-year R&D collaboration deal with AbbVie Inc., a major US drugmaker (notably, Humira®, a rheumatoid arthritis biologic). Each company is reported to invest an initial $250 million, with a possible additional $500 million in the future. Using this funding, Calico will use its scientific expertise to establish a world-class research and development facility and AbbVie will use its commercial expertise to bring the new drugs discovered in this facility to market.
In early 2014, US scientist Craig Venter, who mapped the Human Genome a decade ago, founded22 Human Longevity, Inc. With $70 million in its first round of private funding and prominent Asian real estate developers as key investors, the company aims to take a genome-based approach “to tackle the diseases associated with aging-related human biological decline.”
In late 2014, the health technology and medical lab services company Theranos reached23 critical mass. In 2003, Elizabeth Holmes, a then-19-year-old interested in microfluidics and nanotechnology dropped out of Stanford to start the company, which successfully raised $45-million in venture capital. Announcing a partnership to provide point-of-care blood testing in Walgreen’s Pharmacy stores across the US, Theranos is reported to now be worth over $9 billion. Oracle founder and CEO Larry Ellison is a Theranos board member.
In September 2014, Dr. Joon Yun, a California radiologist, announced24,25 that he would leverage his Palo Alto hedge fund to award $1 million to the first scientists who successfully halt aging. The Palo Alto Longevity Prize focuses on cardiac parameters, with two prizes of $500,000 each: one to be awarded to the team that can protect an animal's heart from aging, and another that succeeds in extending an animal's life expectancy by 50%. Yun observes that: “We spend more than $2 trillion per year on healthcare and do a pretty good job helping people live longer, but ultimately you still die.”
Clearly, the notion that “aging is not inevitable” now resonates with entities that are poised to have a major, lasting, and beneficial impact in the field. It is interesting, as well, to note that each of these megacorporations proudly equates themselves with “anti-aging.” As such, the phrase “anti-aging” is now poised for transformation from a disparaged term to one of prestige and dominance.
Concluding Remarks
Researchers from the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (Austria) report26 that population aging has the potential for many positive impacts for society, including:
•Increased productivity: While population aging may lead to a decline in the labor force, expected increases in workers’ education levels may partly compensate through higher productivity.
•Good for the environment: Reduced consumptions of energy-intensive goods and lower carbon dioxide emissions.
•Prolonged health: As people live longer, they generally also sta healthier longer. This study reports that the average German male in 2050 will spend 80% of his lifetime in good health, compared to 63% today.
•Enhanced quality of life: The relationship between leisure, work, and housework will change in the future, with leisure time increasing on-average.
The
