Title: Prospects for defeating aging altogether
1Prospects for defeating aging altogether Aubrey
D.N.J. de Grey, Ph.D. Chairman and CSO,
Methuselah Foundation Lorton, VA, USA and
Cambridge, UK Email aubrey_at_sens.org Website
http//www.mfoundation.org/
2Semi-technical book
Out now 17.79 at Amazon
3- Structure of this talk
- Repair versus retardation
- Specifics the seven types of damage
- Intracellular junk/medical bioremediation
- Longevity escape velocity concept
- Some evidence that LEV is realistic
- The Methuselah Foundation
4- Structure of this talk
- Repair versus retardation
- Specifics the seven types of damage
- Intracellular junk/medical bioremediation
- Longevity escape velocity concept
- Some evidence that LEV is realistic
- The Methuselah Foundation
5What is aging? Metabolism always causes
damage Damage eventually causes pathology
6Strategies for intervention Gerontology
Geriatrics Metabolism
Damage Pathology
7Problem 1this is the pathology
- Alzheimers
- Stroke
- Sarcopenia
- Osteoarthritis
- Hormonal Imbalance
- Kidney Failure
- Cancer
- Heart Disease
- Diabetes
- Incontinence
- Osteoporosis
- Macular Degeneration
- Parkinsons
- Pneumonia
- Emphysema
- Sex Drive
- and LOTS more
8Problem 2 this is metabolism
9(No Transcript)
10If VW Bugs were built to last
11Maintained to last
12Strategies for intervention Gerontology
Engineering Geriatrics Metabolism
Damage Pathology Claim
unlike the others, the engineering approach may
achieve a large extension of human healthy
lifespan quite soon
13- Structure of this talk
- Repair versus retardation
- Specifics the seven types of damage
- Intracellular junk/medical bioremediation
- Longevity escape velocity concept
- Some evidence that LEV is realistic
- The Methuselah Foundation
14- Reasons for the engineering approach
- it targets initially inert intermediates
(damage)
15- Reasons for the engineering approach
- it targets initially inert intermediates
(damage) - damage is simpler than metabolism or pathology
16This is the damage
Seven Deadly Things
- Junk - Inside Cells
- Junk - Outside Cells
- Cells - Too Few
- Cells - Too Many
- Mutations - Chromosomes
- Mutations - Mitochondria
- Protein Crosslinks
No new type of damage identified since 1982!
17Giving the middle-aged 30 years of
extra healthy life Robust Human
Rejuvenation
Damage rising with age It or its effects reversible by
Cell loss, cell atrophy Cell therapy, mainly
Extracellular junk Phagocytosis by immune stimulation
Extracellular crosslinks AGE-breaking molecules/enzymes
Death-resistant cells Suicide genes, immune stimulation
Mitochondrial mutations Allotopic expression of 13 proteins
Intracellular junk Transgenic microbial hydrolases
Nuclear epimutations (only cancer matters) Telomerase/ALT gene deletion plus periodic stem cell reseeding
18- Structure of this talk
- Repair versus retardation
- Specifics the seven types of damage
- Intracellular junk/medical bioremediation
- Longevity escape velocity concept
- Some evidence that LEV is realistic
- The Methuselah Foundation
19Giving the middle-aged 30 years of
extra healthy life Robust Human
Rejuvenation
Damage rising with age It or its effects reversible by
Cell loss, cell atrophy Cell therapy, mainly
Extracellular junk Phagocytosis by immune stimulation
Extracellular crosslinks AGE-breaking molecules/enzymes
Death-resistant cells Suicide genes, immune stimulation
Mitochondrial mutations Allotopic expression of 13 proteins
Intracellular junk Transgenic microbial hydrolases
Nuclear epimutations (only cancer matters) Telomerase/ALT gene deletion plus periodic stem cell reseeding
20Autophagy in Alzheimers Disease
Dystrophic Neurites
IEM
Calnexin
Cat D
21Endothelial Cells
Lipid-engorged Lysosome
Foam Cell
22- Bioremediation the concept
- - Microbes, like all life, need an ecological
niche - - Some get it by brawn (growing very fast)
- - Some by brain (living off material than others
can't) - Any abundant, energy-rich organic material that
is hard to degrade thus provides selective
pressure to evolve the machinery to degrade it - - That selective pressure works. Even TNT, PCBs
23Xenocatabolism the concept Graveyards -
are abundant in human remains - accumulate
bones (which are not energy-rich) - do not
accumulate oxysterols, tau etc... - so,
should harbour microbes that degrade them -
whose catabolic enzymes could be therapeutic
24Environmental decontamination in vivo
257-ketocholesterol degradation - a promising start
26First MF-funded paper published
27Stable isotope labeling and LC/MS reveal
7-ketocholesterol metabolites in the culture
supernatant
Hydroxylated dione ? M 414 M13C 415
7-ketocholesterol M 400 M13C 401
Dione metabolite ? M 398 M13C 399
Culture growing on 7-ketocholesterol
Culture growing on 13C-labeled 7-ketocholesterol
28- Steps to biomedical application
- Isolate competent strains select by starvation
- Identify the enzymes (mutagenesis, chemistry,
genomics) - Make lysosome-targeted transgenes, assay cell
toxicity - Assay competence in vitro (more
mutagenesis/selection) - Construct transgenic mice, assay toxicity in vivo
- Assay competence in disease mouse models
- Test in humans as for lysosomal storage diseases
29- Structure of this talk
- Repair versus retardation
- Specifics the seven types of damage
- Intracellular junk/medical bioremediation
- Longevity escape velocity concept
- Some evidence that LEV is realistic
- The Methuselah Foundation
30Only 30 years?! Hardly defeating aging
Damage rising with age It or its effects reversible by
Cell loss, cell atrophy Cell therapy, mainly
Extracellular junk Phagocytosis by immune stimulation
Extracellular crosslinks AGE-breaking molecules/enzymes
Death-resistant cells Suicide genes, immune stimulation
Mitochondrial mutations Allotopic expression of 13 proteins
Intracellular junk Transgenic microbial hydrolases
Nuclear epimutations (only cancer matters) Telomerase/ALT gene deletion plus periodic stem cell reseeding
31- Reasons for the engineering approach
- it targets initially inert intermediates
(damage) - damage is simpler than metabolism or pathology
- repairing damage buys time
32Progress avoids diminishing returns
max
Reserve
frail
0
0
Age
Fixing half the damage, then 3/4, then 7/8. -
outpaces the so-far-unfixable damage -
maintains healthspan indefinitely
33Longevity escape velocity (LEV) The rate at
which rejuvenation therapies must improve
(following the achievement of RHR) in order to
outpace the accumulation of
so-far-irreparable damage
34- Structure of this talk
- Repair versus retardation
- Specifics the seven types of damage
- Intracellular junk/medical bioremediation
- Longevity escape velocity concept
- Some evidence that LEV is realistic
- The Methuselah Foundation
35What rate of progress is realistic? Data
1903 1927
1949 1969
36Simulating aging (Phoenix de Grey, AGE 2007
29133) Metabolism ongoingly causes
damage and Damage eventually causes
pathology So. Simulations of aging (and
intervention) should simulate damage accumulation
37Results LEV is very easy Therapies double
efficacy only every 42y
0 50 100 150
200 250 300 350
38Data
39What this means The first 1000-year-old
is probably less than 20 years younger
than the first 150-year-old
40- Structure of this talk
- Repair versus retardation
- Specifics the seven types of damage
- Intracellular junk/medical bioremediation
- Longevity escape velocity concept
- Some evidence that LEV is realistic
- The Methuselah Foundation
41- The Methuselah Foundation
- 4.5M in Mprize pot
- 7M donated/pledged for research
- Current research support 2M/year
- Growth gt2x/year since MFs formation
- Ideal budget 100M/year (500 scientists)
- Proof of concept (mice) probably lt10y away
- Bottom line
- Its going well, and its pretty cheap!
42Why I am doing this
43 Fun Not fun
Why I am doing this
44Semi-technical book
Out now 17.79 at Amazon