Category Archives: Longevity Medicine

Don’t become fat: “Individuals with a large waist circumference appear to have a greater risk of dying from any cause over a nine-year period … Having a large waist circumference has previously been associated with inflammation, insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes, abnormal cholesterol levels and heart disease … This may be because waist circumference is strongly correlated with fat tissue in the viscera – surrounding the organs in the abdomen – which is thought to be more dangerous than fat tissue under the skin. … [researchers] examined the association between waist circumference and risk of death among 48,500 men and 56,343 women age 50 and older (median or midpoint age, 69 years in men and 67 years in women). All had participated in the Cancer Prevention Study II Nutrition Cohort, for which they completed a mailed questionnaire about demographic, medical and behavioral factors in 1992 or 1993 and provided information about weight and waist circumference in 1997. Deaths and their causes were tracked through the National Death Index until Dec. 31, 2006; a total of 9,315 men and 5,332 women died during this timeframe. … After adjusting for body mass index (BMI) and other risk factors, very large waists (120 centimeters or 47 inches or larger in men, and 110 centimeters or 42 inches or larger in women) were associated with approximately twice the risk of death during the study period. A larger waist was associated with higher risk of death across all categories of BMI, including normal weight, overweight and obese.”

View the Article Under Discussion: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-08/jaaj-lwa080510.php

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Via EurekAlert! a reminder that we can think of most age-related conditions as resulting from one or more forms of damage that everyone suffers to some degree – but has progressed further in those who have the condition: “In many neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s and Huntington’s, clumps of proteins known as aggregates appear in the patients’ brains as the degeneration progresses. Those clumps contain some proteins that are unique to the specific disease (such as Abeta in Alzheimer’s), intertwined with many others that are common in healthy individuals. For years, those common proteins were thought to be accidental inclusions in the aggregates … In fact, they may not be innocent bystanders at all, but instead their presence may influence the course of neurodegenerative disease. … in the presence of proteins specific to Huntington’s disease, these aggregators actually sped up the course of the disease, indicating that they could be fundamental to its progression. These findings indicate that widespread protein insolubility and aggregation is an inherent part of aging and that it may influence both lifespan and neurodegenerative disease. The presence of insoluble protein aggregates has long been a hallmark of protein aggregation diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Huntington’s and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) disease. The team [asked] a simple question that had never been asked before: do normal proteins form insoluble clumps when normal, healthy individuals age?” Those “normal, health individuals” are on their way to the same end destination of neurodegeneration, just not as fast.

View the Article Under Discussion: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-08/plos-np080610.php

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From the Telegraph: “In as little as five years, researchers hope to be able to coax the heart into regenerating itself, repairing the damage caused by cardiac arrests and old age. … It works in a similar way to stem cells but instead of the new cells being grown outside the body and then injected back in, the technique simply makes the cells [transform] at the point where they are needed. … The main problem is that when beating muscles cells – known as cardiomyocytes – die during an attack there is no way to reactivate them and the surrounding connective tissue – known as fibroblasts – cannot take over their role.
Now [researchers] have discovered a way of reprogramming fibroblasts into cardiomyocytes. … We first have to test if the same factors can convert human fibroblasts to beating heart muscle and then find ways to safely introduce these factors, or small molecules that mimic these factors, into the coronary circulation so they can reprogram the existing fibroblasts in the heart. I envision such factors being loaded into a stent that is placed in the coronary artery and can elute (allow to emerge) the reprogramming factors over 1-2 weeks. … The team found that they needed a combination of just three substance – Gata4, Mef2c, and Tbx5 – to efficiently convert fibroblasts into cells that could beat like cardiomyocytes.”

View the Article Under Discussion: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/7928426/Damaged-heart-could-be-coaxed-into-mending-itself-claim-scientists.html

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Via EurekAlert!: “Researchers for the first time have induced robust regeneration of nerve connections that control voluntary movement after spinal cord injury, showing the potential for new therapeutic approaches to paralysis and other motor function impairments. … They did this by deleting an enzyme called PTEN (a phosphatase and tensin homolog), which controls a molecular pathway called mTOR that is a key regulator of cell growth. PTEN activity is low early during development, allowing cell proliferation. PTEN then turns on when growth is completed, inhibiting mTOR and precluding any ability to regenerate. … Until now, such robust nerve regeneration has been impossible in the spinal cord. … An injury the size of a grape can lead to complete loss of function below the level of injury. For example, an injury to the neck can cause paralysis of arms and legs … These devastating consequences occur even though the spinal cord below the level of injury is intact. All these lost functions could be restored if we could find a way to regenerate the connections that were damaged. … are now studying whether the PTEN-deletion treatment leads to actual restoration of motor function in mice with spinal cord injury.”

View the Article Under Discussion: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-08/uoc–ibn080510.php

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The FDA is the only reason that we don’t see dozens of different serious commercial efforts to treat people using early-stage stem cell therapies within the US. One of the few groups to try is presently under pressure, as this press release notes: “Regenerative Sciences, Inc., a Colorado medical practice that specializes in the use of a person’s own stem cells to help patients avoid more invasive orthopedic surgery, announced today that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is seeking to enjoin the clinic physicians from practicing medicine using patients’ own stem cells. The lawsuit will allow Regenerative Sciences to question the FDA’s policy that adult stem cells can be classified as drugs when used as part of a medical practice. … The FDA will finally answer our questions, in court, about their claims and jurisdiction as opposed to doing everything in their power to avoid the issue that we are not a drug manufacturer, but simply a medical practice.” The FDA has a long history of abuse and overreach, and this is simply more of the same – exactly what we should expect of bureaucrats left largely unaccountable for their actions. Progress and discovery becomes entirely secondary to the urge to power. When everything that is not explicitly permitted is forbidden, there is no innovation, no progress. This age of biotechnology could be far further advanced if not for the short-sighted fools who write and enact medical regulations.

View the Article Under Discussion: http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/colorado-medical-clinic-welcomes-opportunity-to-fight-fda-in-court-100247969.html

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These researchers argue that embryonic stem (ES) cells and induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells are most likely the same in any aspect that matters: “the pluripotency of ES cells fueled excitement over their use in regenerative medicine. While ethical hurdles associated with the clinical application of human ES cells appeared to have been overcome with the development of methods to create iPS cells, some recent research has suggested that ES and iPS cells have substantial differences in which sets of genes they express. These findings [argue] to the contrary, rekindling hopes that, under the proper circumstances, iPS cells may indeed hold the clinical promise ascribed to them earlier. … iPS cells are made by introducing three key genes into adult cells. These reprogramming factors push the cells from a mature state to a more flexible embryonic stem cell-like state. Like ES cells, iPS cells can then, in theory, be coaxed to mature into almost any type of cell in the body. Unlike ES cells, iPS cells taken from a patient are not likely to be rejected by that patient’s immune system. This difference overcomes a major hurdle in regenerative medicine. … At this stage, we can’t yet prove that they are absolutely identical, but the available technology doesn’t reveal differences. … Some earlier studies have indicated that iPS and ES cells are dissimilar enough to be classified as different cell types. [The researchers] concluded that the differences noted in other studies were not consistent between different laboratories and thus were not likely to be a result of fundamental differences between the cell types.”

View the Article Under Discussion: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-08/wifb-hes080510.php

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