Mid-old cells are a potential target for anti-aging interventions in the elderly

Re:Mid-old cells are a potential target for anti-aging inter... by harles on Friday November 24, 2023 @01:17AM (#38401089)

Can someone explain why this is interesting? It looks like a directionally interesting anti-aging study, but without any major breakthroughs. I'm curious what folks upvoting see in the study that I'm missing.

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Re:Mid-old cells are a potential target for anti-aging inter... by kalium-xyz on Friday November 24, 2023 @01:26AM (#38401137)

Its further evidence for a hypothesis on the mechanism of aging. Personally I just wanna know how aging works

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Re:Mid-old cells are a potential target for anti-aging inter... by graphe on Friday November 24, 2023 @05:11AM (#38402325)

Don't your telomeres get shorter, your DNA gets damaged and it doesn't replicate correctly anymore? Some animals can be immortal like lobsters but face limits like their physical size can kill them when they molt enough.

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Re:Mid-old cells are a potential target for anti-aging inter... by tambourine_man on Friday November 24, 2023 @07:14AM (#38403181)

I think the consensus is that it’s part of the process, but not the whole picture, but I’m no expert.

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Re:Mid-old cells are a potential target for anti-aging inter... by throwaway60703 on Friday November 24, 2023 @08:20AM (#38403697)

Yes, that's one of around 50 currently recognized factors of aging.

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Re:Mid-old cells are a potential target for anti-aging inter... by echelon on Friday November 24, 2023 @10:56AM (#38405188)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hallmarks_of_aging

This isn't comprehensive, though. I don't see intracellular or extracellular waste accumulation, for instance.

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Re:Mid-old cells are a potential target for anti-aging inter... by calepayson on Friday November 24, 2023 @01:00PM (#38406494)

I'm not sure if this is one of the consensus primary causes but the most compelling explanation I've heard is capillary damage.

Red blood cells and capillaries have roughly the same diameter leading to constant friction. Your body repairs the capillaries but, given enough time, it makes mistakes. As these mistakes pile up your circulatory system, your body's supply chain, slowly gets less efficient. This leads to every cell in your body gets the energy it needs a little later, and has to hold onto waste for a little longer.

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Re:Mid-old cells are a potential target for anti-aging inter... by BobaFloutist on Friday November 24, 2023 @05:03PM (#38408891)

If aging was just DNA errors, wouldn't it be far less consistent in how it effected people?

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Re:Mid-old cells are a potential target for anti-aging inter... by Torkel on Friday November 24, 2023 @04:32AM (#38402087)

"Remarkably, the microenvironmental change and the functional decline of mid-old cells could be reversed by a young cell-originated protein, SLIT2. Our data identify functional reversion of mid-old cells as a potential method to prevent or ameliorate aspects of aging-related tissue dysfunction."

I think this sounds promising.

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Re:Mid-old cells are a potential target for anti-aging inter... by RobotToaster on Friday November 24, 2023 @06:51AM (#38403015)

So, potentially, we can synthesise this SLIT2 and inject people with a bunch of it?

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Re:Mid-old cells are a potential target for anti-aging inter... by Torkel on Friday November 24, 2023 @07:23AM (#38403250)

That is, unfortunately!, not how these things work. But it allows people to do more targeted studies, and (many years of research later) perhaps find a drug that can have some impact.

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Re:Mid-old cells are a potential target for anti-aging inter... by vanderZwan on Friday November 24, 2023 @12:41PM (#38406292)

Or sometimes we get really lucky and just find a food or spice that upregulates/downregulates the right gene or affects the right enzyme (e.g. ginger contains compounds that suppress the inflammation triggering enzyme COX-2 without affecting the related COX-1 enzyme, which is actually beneficial. Most inflammation-reducing drugs affect both).

Although I'm sure we'd have noticed it by now if a food item targeted these genes (assuming they do significantly affect how healthily people age).

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Re:Mid-old cells are a potential target for anti-aging inter... by woliveirajr on Friday November 24, 2023 @01:23PM (#38406674)

Thanks for the ginger example, it was tangential but gave me some ideas :-)

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