The last post was probably difficult to understand. So I'll explain a bit and say a few words about what can be done about aging according to modern science.
As I've already said, aging is most likely programmed, and its primary cause is likely retrotransposons in our DNA. Everything else is likely secondary. Again, these are ancient viruses that emerge from DNA during aging and cancer (though probably in other complex pathologies as well).
In this context, we come to the understanding that aging is viral in nature. And someone/something inserted these viruses into our DNA millions of years ago, and perhaps they are the cause of life. I don't believe in life from chaos...
Species that suppress these viruses in their cells live longer (in fact, many times longer, as I gave examples in the previous post). So, by analogy with these animal species, if we somehow suppress these viruses in humans, they would live 150-200 years.
How can they be suppressed?
At the moment, there are three approaches (at least relatively publicly):
- The use of reverse transcriptase inhibitors. These drugs are relatively old and are used to treat HIV. Few people know this, but official studies of these drugs show some degree of "rejuvenating" effect. However, there are problems: they are only given to HIV patients, and they have severe side effects. So, human studies have so far only involved patients. Life was prolonged in mice, but this was a laboratory model, with the accumulation of senescent cells (the mice were artificially aged with radiation).
- They're developing a vaccine. It turns out that cancer patients already have antibodies to these retrotransposons in their blood. But so far, this is only a marker of problems, not a protective mechanism. Scientists want to study this process and develop a vaccine against retrotransposons as well. Although, in my opinion, this is a poor approach. After all, what kind of antibodies are inside cells? mRNA vaccines have already been made, and they turned out to be completely useless... I see a similarly flawed approach to the problem here. However, maybe I'm still missing something.
- The use of senolytics. This is akin to mitigating the effects of programmed aging, but not treating the underlying cause! As a reminder, senescent cells are cells that have stopped dividing and interfere with other cells—zombie cells, as they say. They become this way after damage, after reaching the Hayflick limit, and so on. That's a separate topic. But there's a theory that these cells in the body are due to the activity of those very same retrotransposons.
I believe these cells are not the primary cause of aging, but a consequence. However, many scientists still believe they are the cause... Generally speaking, there are substances that can eliminate these cells in certain tissues. For example, I take a supplement containing all known substances that can eliminate senescent cells— Qualia Senolytic. It's expensive, but it's the only one I've found that's backed by research.
For those interested in learning about aging, senescence, and retrotransposons, here's a fascinating lecture in Russian from a scientist conducting cutting-edge research in this field. It'll be especially informative for biologists and medical professionals:
