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  Who wants to live forever? August 19, 2001 Reporter :Britain's Channel 5  The fantasy of many to live forever is moving closer to reality with some incredible scientific breakthroughs. In this Channel Five documentary, we meet several scientists whose work is in the forefront of the war against ageing. At this early stage, their research has been done on mice and worms, but they've come a long way in the past decade.At the Buck Institute for Age Research in San Francisco, Dr Simon Melov is waging a valiant battle against ageing. But he knows that true immortality is impossible: "If you were to eliminate the ageing process, we would live on average about 600 years." The only thing that would kill us would be accidents. "So, at the age of 600, you might get killed by a meteor, a shark attack, lightning ... whatever." Improved hygiene and health care have dramatically improved our lifespan, which has now reached 70 years. As recently as 1900, the average life span was only 48 years. Simon Melov believes we can slow down the ageing process: "Ten years ago, no-one would have thought we could have genes which influence the lifespan in simple organisms. This is a really new area, and it's accelerating and it's a tremendously exciting time to be in science." Melov worked with mice, comparing the DNA of young and old mice, and found the gene that affected the way in which the animals aged. After months of study, Melov isolated genes that produced chemicals that slowed down the ageing process. He then decided to breed mice without one of these genes. The results were incredible. "The effects were dramatic," Dr Melov said. "These mice died within a week of birth. They had terrible heart disease and liver dysfunction, and a whole range of abnormalities."  Melov had unlocked part of the mystery of how genes control ageing. He realised if he could replicate the chemical action of the missing gene, he might be able to find a way to make mice, even humans, live longer. Melov found what he was looking for in a compound known as a Synthetic Catalytic Scavenger, simply referred to as SCS. When he injected the geneless mice — who were dying quickly — with SCS, the cells of their brains stopped dying. The drug was having a profound effect.In Britain, at Manchester University, Dr Gordon Lithgow jumped at the challenge to test SCS, because, like Melov, he had been studying human ageing for years. "There are potentially some benefits to ageing: wisdom increases and life experiences can bring a great deal of good, but you only have to walk through a geriatric or psychiatric ward, and see the terrible ravages of some of the biology that's going in ourselves ... and I think most of us want to do something about it." Both Melov and Lithgow believed the main culprit contributing to the ageing process was oxygen. As Lithgow put it: "We need oxygen, and, of course, oxygen is a double-edged sword, because it's absolutely required for life, but it can be very toxic." And it's the free radicals in oxygen that age us. They can be found in the environment around us: "Sunlight is a major source of oxygen radical damage, and wrinkling of skin is almost 95 percent the result of exposure to UV radiation. And, of course, cigarette smoke is another major source of oxygen radicals." Avoiding the sun, and not smoking can help us, but another way of killing off the oxygen radicals is by eating foods that naturally contain anti-oxidants. Dr Lithgow said: "You get an awful lot of protection from eating the right foods and so on, including red wine, luckily." Fruits and vegetables are rich sources of anti-oxidants.  Doctors Melov and Lithgow realised that what was needed was an anti-oxidant drug powerful enough to kill off all the free radicals. They hoped SCS could be the answer. Dr Lithgow decided to find out if the drug could do this, testing it on one of the simplest creatures on the planet, the earthworm. He gave one group of worms the SCS and left the others untreated. With a lifespan of 20 days, the untreated worms were all dying, and the worms with SCS were still alive — some living for 40 days. It was a major scientific breakthrough.Back in the USA, Dr Melov was delighted and amazed: "I was frankly shocked when he handed me the results, and I was in a complete blank for the next 40 minutes, looking at the significance of these results, because for the first time, we actually had a drug which extended the lifespan in a multi-cellular organism." Dr Gordon Lithgow predicted that in the next 20 years, we're going to see some remarkable developments. But the documentary doesn't just focus on SCS as the only weapon in the battle against ageing. Another weapon, and it's surprisingly simple, is caloric reduction, ie, eat fewer calories by eating less food. At the University College, London, Professor Linda Partridge can make the fruit fly live as long as 12 weeks by giving it less food. The average life of a fruit fly is five weeks. Professor Partridge said: "By restricting the supply, it may limit the amount of oxygen that's consumed and the production of these oxygen-free radicals that are so damaging..." At America's National Institute on Ageing, they've gone one step further. In an ongoing experiment, researchers are testing how monkeys react when their diet is restricted. Fourteen years into the project, the monkeys on a diet are living longer than their normal 25-year span. The oldest is 36 and still going strong." OTHER RESEARCH Drugs  There are many anti-ageing drugs currently on the market. Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) is now widely used to combat the symptoms of menopause. It also helps with osteoporosis and can protect against heart attacks. Scientists have discovered the adrenal hormone DHEA (dehydroepiandrosterone) reduces the deterioration of the immune system in rats. Clinical trials on older people are underway. Injections of the growth hormone hGH have reversed some of the ageing symptoms in elderly men. ATP (Adenosis Trisophate) can help with mobility in older people. Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) Recent studies of the anti-oxidant CoQ10, have shown it can play a role in fighting heart disease. Research conducted by the Baker Institute in Melbourne showed that older people's heart muscles took a lot longer to recover from stress than those of younger people. However, when the older muscles were treated with CoQ10, their recovery rate improved. St Vincent's Hospital in Sydney trialled CoQ10 and found that it improved the symptoms of heart-failure patients. Melatonin Melatonin is the hormone secreted from the brain's pineal gland. It is triggered by darkness and makes humans feel sleepy. Some researchers believe as the pineal gland calcifies with age, the melatonin level decreases. As melatonin is the body's way of rejuvenating itself, it is potentially a means of slowing down the ageing process. Further studies have failed to detect a difference in the melatonin levels of elderly people to that compared with young people. The Life Extension Foundation in the United States claims the hormone melatonin can protect against almost every ageing disease. However, there have been no in-depth studies into prolonged use of the hormone and a Swiss trial conducted on rats and mice showed some of them developed cancer. Research on melatonin is still being conducted worldwide. Melatonin at present cannot be purchased in Australia. Telomerase Telomeres are the strands of DNA that tie up chromosomes. In 1986, Howard Cooke from the Medical Research Council in Edinburgh discovered that the telomeres in reproductive cells were much longer than those in skin, muscle and nerve cells (known as somatic cells). He suggested that if the somatic cells could not repair their telomeres, they would shrink. Telomerase is an enzyme found in reproductive and cancer cells that repairs telomeres. Without telomerase, a cell will gradually age. Researchers from the University of Colorado have proven that the telomerase gene can be activated in somatic cells. Research is continuing on telomerase, but it is possible that without cellular aging, we could increase our lifespan. Stem Cells Scientists have been harvesting stem cells for over a decade. Stem cells are blood cells that are at their very earliest stage of development. Research has been conducted on both embryonic and adult stem cells. Harvard Medical School researchers have managed to cure insulin-dependent diabetes in mice with adult stem cells and believe that they may be able to do so in humans. Surgeons in Taiwan have repaired severe eye damage with the patients' own stem cells. Stroke victims' brains have been repaired by implanting adult stem cells. This week, scientists at Melbourne's Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research harvested adult stem cells from the brains of adult mice and showed they could be grown into nerve and muscle cells. Exercise The Australian Academy of Tai Chi boasts that Tai Chi can slow down the ageing process through rejuvenation and that doctors and health authorities are recommending it for a range of ailments such as cardiac rehabilitation, Parkinson's disease and hypertension. Indeed, sport and exercise have been proven as a tried and true method of living longer. Walking and jogging helps maintain cardiovascular health and can reduce the chances of developing arthritis in later life. Swimming can build muscle strength and is an excellent form of stress relief. Tea, red wine and chocolate? It's true! According to the CSIRO, tea, red wine and chocolate can block the damaging free radicals, which decay our bodies. These foods contain a group of compounds known as polyphenols, which contribute to our overall anti-oxidant defence. Scientists at last year's American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting also discussed preliminary findings that chocolate may be good for our hearts. Research has determined that certain factors that can contribute to heart disease lowered for up to six hours after consumption of chocolate. British researchers from the University of Westminster have found that the scent of chocolate activates the saliva glands, which in turn stimulate the immune system. |
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