Topic awaiting preservation: Telomeres - that much closer

Novenber 19, 2002

PALO ALTO, Calif., Nov 18, 2002 (United Press International via COMTEX) -- Scientists reported Monday they might have found a new way to extend a cell's lifespan -- by using ordinary biochemicals to elongate its chromosomes.

Although it is too early to say whether this might help reverse human aging, experts think the findings could help treat cancers that fail to die or provide organs to the hundreds of thousands of patients awaiting transplants worldwide annually.

"If you can make cells live longer in a test tube, there's also the possibility of growing tissue for transplantation. That could also get away from the problems around stem cell research," senior researcher Eric Kool, a biological chemist at Stanford University, told United Press International. "Right now it's only a dream, but I actually don't think we're that far away."

Each time a cell replicates its DNA, each chromosome loses a few of the building blocks, known as bases, from its ends. To preserve this genetic information, an enzyme known as telomerase adds thousands of copies of a six-base-long sequence onto each telomere, or chromosome end.

Most cells stop making telomerase early in development. Telomeres therefore shrink with age, dictating the maximum number of times a cell can divide.

"Human telomeres in a new born infant are roughly 15,000 bases long. When they reach 3,000 or 5,000 bases, that's when cells switch off and die," Kool said. "Depending on the kind of cells, some might divide once a day, while some might divide once every few months."

Telomerase switches back on in cancer cells, making them immortal, one reason why they are so deadly and so hard to kill. Knowing more about telomeres therefore could help tackle cancer as well as aging. "In the long run, we hope it's possible to make telomeres longer in living cells and thus make the cells live longer," Kool said.

Little is known about how telomeres fold or form because it is difficult extracting high levels of functional purified telomerase from cells. Kool and his team have now avoided this problem altogether by creating a telomerase mimic. As they describe in this week's Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, they already have used their system in test tubes to elongate chromosomes extracted from human kidney cells.

First, the researches bind a tiny circle of DNA onto the ends of chromosomes. This circle contains the code for the six-base sequence making up telomeres. Then, the scientists expose the chromosomes to a readily available DNA duplicating enzyme known as DNA polymerase. The biochemical uses the DNA circle as a template to manufacture thousands of copies of the six- base sequence.

For reasons currently unclear, this new system builds telomeres at least 10 times faster than telomerase does. So far the investigators are routinely elongating telomeres by 15,000 bases. They are now testing their technique on human bone marrow in test tubes to see whether it works in cells.

Biochemist David Corey of the University of Texas in Dallas found the work exciting.

"I'd love to collaborate with Dr. Kool on it to try and make the technique work inside cells. It'd be a rewarding challenge," he said. "Increasing the lifetime of cells would have many therapeutic applications, particularly in techniques that require stem cells to be grown for transplantation. This may also be a first step towards reversal of aging at the level of a whole organism or organ, but it is too early to do more than speculate."

As we head down the path to immortality... the threat of terminal overpopulation looms ever darker...

That's ultimately a result of this type of research. Lets make everyone live longer, and NOT reduce the birthrate!

Bodhi - Cell 617

I'd just like to hit the area between 23-28, then stay that healthy feeling and young looking until I keel over.

Now THAT's the science I'm lookin for!

Really? I think I'd rather be 19 (as I am now). I'm having the absolute time of my life right now, and I really don't want it to ever end

Never let yourself be fooled into thinking that any one period of your life is your "prime." You are in your prime when you think you are in your prime. Yeah, I had a great time when I was in university, but I'm having a great time now, too, and I expect to continue having a great time in the future. And I don't care how many years I may put behind me, I plan on never getting old.

I'm not sure being able to reverse physical aging would be such a good thing, anyway. We already have a severe enough overpopulation problem as it is--can you imagine would it would be like if people started getting younger and living longer? Granted, it probably wouldn't affect the Third World as much (which is where the effects of overpopulation are most keenly felt), but it would still add to the problem.

So, medical uses like a cure for cancer, etc., sound good to me, but reversing aging does not.

I don't know about anyone else, but I honestly don't want to stay at any one point of my life for a longer period of time than normal. I enjoy the prospect of growing older, the thought of being elderly is a good one for me. Sure death comes into the equasion, and I'm not jumping for joy that I'm going to keel over one day, but I like living my life knowing that I'll eventually become 35, 45, 55, and so on. The periodic stages in life are what make it complete, and I'd rather not cheat myself out of advancing through them at a regular pace. Imagine staying 20 forever, watching your friends and family die before you. Couldn't bear that, I'd much rather just let life take me where it may.

Just my opinion, of course.

njuice42 Cell # 551
icq 957255

We should focus on improving QUALITY of life, not QUANTITY. Being able to reverse the ageing process has really nasty implications for quality of life. We can't support the people who are already on the planet, not to mention all of the babies everyone's planning on having in the future...

Suho - the third workd nations are terribly overpopulated, but the rest of the world appears to be catching up quickly! This sort of thing just gives me the heebie-jeebies... Since we're looking for genes, I think we need to find the gene that controls common sense and make sure everyone's works right!

Bodhi - Cell 617

Yup, that's exactly what I'm talking about, bodhi. I think you just said it better. The problem seems to be that people don't realize that the earth is a single ecosystem--that what happens in one part of the world affects the whole system. People in advanced nations will go along with their lives, not realizing that anything is wrong, until one day the bottom just falls out.

For example: the US Southwest. My grandparents live in Albuquerque, and my aunt lives right outside the city (in the mountains). I went to visit them last summer, and my aunt's husband was telling me how the city is slowly but surely depleting the groundwater in the area. You would think with an impending water crisis people would conserve, right? But when I went up on the Sandia Crest, I looked down on the city and saw a number of golf courses dotting the area. Having worked on a golf course myself, I know how much water they suck up, especially in the desert. Yet the well-to-do must have their silly little balls to hit around on nice green grass while the earth slowly dies beneath their feet.

They are also artificially suppressing fires in the mountains. Fires are actually nature's way of cleaning up the dead wood and making room for new trees. As it is now, though, the mountains are littered with dry, brittle kindling, just waiting for the next fire to come along. I don't care how hard you try to suppress it, that fire will come, and when it does it will burn so hot that it will not only destroy everything in the mountains, but it will effectively sterilize the soil as well so nothing will be able to grow back. Two good reasons why my aunt and her husband are looking to move out of the area.

Sorry for the rant. It just aggravates me to see people playing around with nature and giving no thought to the consequences.

As for the common sense gene... *sigh* that seems to be missing in a majority of the earth's population--so much so that I sometimes wonder if it really is a basic human trait.

Personally, I think a much more fitting term would be un-common sense.

ROFLMAO! un-common sense gene... That must be it. A gene that prevents humans from gaining useful amounts of common sense. We need to locate it and figure out how to turn it off. Anybody interested? I'm gonna write a grant proposal for it. I wonder if I can get them to give me $3mil for that?

heh heh heh

Another thing about Arizona... People in the Southeast who suffer from allergies are all deciding to move to the desert. But guess what? They're taking their favorite garden plants and flowers with them... And transplanting them into the desert. Not only do these types of plants require more water than the plants found natively in that area, but they also carry the pollen that these dumbasses are allergic to! No escape from allergies when you take the things with you. Now I ask - is this not the acme of stupidity? And to top it all off, I flip through the channels on TV the other night, you know, a little bit of numbing for the mind at the end of the day, and lo and behold - a whole television show devoted to the stupid behavior of people, unfortuantely caught on tape. *sigh* Is there no hope?

Bodhi - Cell 617

quote:

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As we head down the path to immortality... the threat of terminal overpopulation looms ever darker...

---

Maybe the rest of the world should be taking on the same policies as China. That way, we can live longer, have less kids, and everyone will be fine.

S^abaal ud T'a johtizuc^ult'a Fedaro.

I heartily agree with that, but I'm pretty sure that the majority of people in the world would really have a problem with being told exactly how many children they can or can't have...

Seems most people have a problem being told they can or can't do anything if they don't want to...

Bodhi - Cell 617

Heh. The real question is, long term extended life is coming...and is something that either we (this generation) or the next, will have to deal with. And it seems to me, that most of the previous posts are ignoring that. It will come, whether you like it or not, just like cloning has.

So...what types of effects and changes will it bring? Granted, that overpopulation seems to be one effect...but then, space has a lot of room, don't you think? With very long lifespans, interstellar travel becomes...viable, with todays technology...

That post on quality of life, instead of quantity was good...however, what if one can have both?

As with all advancements (and change), there are always...hurdles. Personally, I'm really looking forward to extended life spans...but that is just me.

Given the directions that global society is taking lately, I'm not sure having more people around for longer is a good thing.

As you say WS - it may be coming anyway, and if so, we likely couldn't stop it if we wanted to. But I'd like to see the average level of human intelligence come up a few points before we started putting more of us out into the rest of the universe. The vast majority of humans are not nearly smart enough for inter-galactic expansion.

To have the opportunity to have longer life, and to explore and study many new things is intriguing to say the least - but as a species, are we really ready for it? Perhaps, if we don't blow ourselves up first.

Bodhi - Cell 617

Yes, we are more than ready for it, as a species...one could make the point that we were born for it...to explore the unknown. Whether or not we are mature enough as a species to...what? Propagate space? Well, why not? Just because we seem to hate each other's guts? Since when was mature-ness a pre-requisite for exploration and colonization?

Now, if you mean extending the life span, ok, good point. However, I don't think that that will in any way 'stave off' advancements in this area...it is coming, and we will have to deal with it, whether or not we are ready. And that was the point to what I meant in my last post. It's a little too late to be worrying about whether we are mature enough or not.

I was actually thinking about the human race's ability to take care of the planet Earth, much less an entire galaxy... Galactic Environmentalism, if you will.

I mean, here we are, tearing up the Earth, and thinking about moving on to other places in the universe, when we can't even be responsible for what we've been given so far. Much less to have more of us around for longer amounts of time. More waste and irreparable damage to the world.

Not that my personal concern means anything to the rate of PROGRESS anyway. Science and Government will do what they will do regardless, and I'll likely be dead before it all happens... perhaps its all moot. But in the realm of speculation - I just don't think it's a good idea. Call me cynical if you will.
The advancements we make in science, as a race in general, continually astound me. The things we discover about ourselves, and the world are simply amazing. And if I thought in any way that the human race was at this point worthy of such grandeur, I would support it wholeheartedly. I love science, and I enjoy learning new things. But my personal experience with members of the human race on a daily basis gives me more than an inkling of indication that we'll just screw it up in the long run.

Bodhi - Cell 617

I feel it's safe to say that science has a way of putting a dark spin on things that are deemed ground-breaking and astonishing. Nuclear Technology bred both clean energy and the mushroom cloud. With this, you can litterally extend your life for decades past your normal expectancy, but so can a ruthless Dictator.

Dang, I been walking past WebShamen's room a bit too much...

njuice42 Cell # 551
icq 957255

I guess I'm curious as to whether or not we'll still wear out at around the same time as we do now. Living for 30 years with a worn out body is bad enough but 50 years or more is just too much. Of course increasing the number of times the cell can divide might help with some of the regenerative abilities the body has but... well.. hardware just plain breaks after a while.

GrythusDraconis
I admire a man who can budget his life around his pint of Guinness and I envy a man who's wife will let him. ME, inspired by Suho1004 here.

*gasp* GD, that is a great thought! All these rich, millionaire-esque folks that get the treatment done are going to be running around an old folk's home looking 25 years old and having bad hips... Hahaha... that's good stuff right there.

But seriously, good question. Perhaps our cells are 'programmed' to work together in a way that they know when the experation date on the bottle is. Certainly would suck to have wasted all the money to get the treatment if that were the case.

njuice42 Cell # 551
icq 957255

*sigh* Ok, now, think about it...the body ages...because of what? Hmmm? Well, partly because the cells lose the ability to duplicate themselves...which leads to wrinkled skin, aching joints, etc...and enabling the cells to duplicate themselves more than normal...now what kind of effect would that have, hmmm? It would have the effect of prolonging youthfulness...or the appearance of youthfulness. So, you're not going to have Grandpa and Grandma looking like a 20 year old in the Old Folks home...rather, that '20 year old' may be much, much older...say, 40. But somewhere down the line (unless they totally remove the duplicating problem altogether), you'll have them there...albeit as 180+ year olds...still looking old, and crinkly.

Now, where the brain is concerned...that may be a different matter...but from the looks, themselves, the above holds true...

[This message has been edited by WebShaman (edited 12-13-2002).]

Blast! Foiled again...

njuice42 Cell # 551
icq 957255

Well I was going less on the general appearance issues than the basic skeletal structure and nervous system and the like. Things that don't really heal that quickly or ever. I mean, think along the lines of leprosy. Continual nerve damage changes the body's understanding of how to heal itself. It tends to heal wrong after that point. I'm just thinking that there may be some surprises involved with extra long lives. There are plenty of things that the body doesn't deal with very well. If this just prolongs the amount of time that it can't deal with them it doesn't sound very fun.

GrythusDraconis
I admire a man who can budget his life around his pint of Guinness and I envy a man who's wife will let him. ME, inspired by Suho1004 here.