Vladimir Skulachev is the most cited among Russian biologists, academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences and other academies, laureate of state awards and orders, founder and dean of the Faculty of Bioinformatics and Bioengineering at Moscow State University, a scientist who is known all over the world. And at the same time, he is a dissident in science, determined to challenge not only colleagues, but also the fundamental limitations of human nature - aging and death.
We are sitting in one of the laboratories of Moscow State University and discussing Skulachev's book "Life without old age", which the publishers do not want to release in full version - they are afraid to overload the readers' brains with science.
So much has been written about the fight against aging of all delirium and horror! - complains Skulachev. - I would not like to be on a par with typical authors discussing this topic. Now gerontology is a very weak area of \u200b\u200bscience, there is an extremely low level of research. Until now, one of our main tasks in this area is to defeat the prevailing point of view that the fight against aging is hopeless, to dispel the myth that aging is inevitable and therefore cannot be treated. When gerontologists are about to drink, they raise their first toast "To the success of our hopeless cause."
Is the atmosphere of hopelessness alienating talented scientists from this field?
This is not the only point. This hopelessness is exploited by geriatric doctors. If you had appendicitis cut out and, God forbid, you die, then your relatives will sue this surgeon. And if you are being treated for aging and die from it, who will throw a stone at the doctor? Geriatrics is an absolutely guaranteed income, without risk: after all, it is believed that basically nothing can be done, you can only alleviate suffering. And a lot of unscrupulous people earn their bread on aging. I was asked at one time: "Why are you doing oxidative phosphorylation?" I replied: "Because a party comrade will not say this and will not be able to give me instructions on how best to deal with oxidative phosphorylation." And everyone who is not lazy is engaged in aging. They even tried to add some kind of Russian kondy way to my book: to use the energy of the sun, earth and water, something like that. And people are not shy, they bring me my book with this text as if nothing had happened.
But you are also a white crow among fellow scientists?
I am a dissident in the world of aging theories. Until now, the overwhelming majority of biologists believe that aging is the accumulation of random errors. And I am sure that this is adherence to a certain program inherent in each of us. However, my project is now at such a stage that I am no longer interested in disputes with opponents.
Programmed death
Does your theory explain aging better?
You see, the system we are trying to explain is extremely complex and insufficiently studied. Are you a biologist by training?
Psychologist.
It should also be obvious to the psychologist that if the system is very complex, then its behavior can be explained by any theories.
Exactly, psychology is full of theories that can explain anything from their bell tower.
It's the same in biology. Aging is easy to explain by one theory or another, but it is still impossible to prove who is right.
What then led you to believe that aging is a program?
A very simple thing. There are thousands of examples of how a living being carries a deadly program within him. All I have to do is put forward a hypothesis that one of these programs is the aging program. And if this is a program, then by stopping it, you can reverse aging. By the way, we already know how to break the program in the event of a programmed cell death.
And what are these examples of lethal programs?
There is a huge group of scientists in biology for whom it would be obvious that aging is a program. Botanists. There are annuals, there are a huge number of them, and it is clear to the hedgehog that they are dying due to the program that they have. We have already found a substance that kills them - it is formed in the seeds, this is abscisic acid and some other hormones that travel from seed to leaves and kill the leaves. The leaves fall off and the plant dies.
Isn't the winter cold killing them?
No, this happens much earlier and even in the warmest conditions. And if you remove the seeds, the plant becomes perennial. Soybeans, for example, or a cutter. And invertebrate zoologists are also well aware that the death of an organism can be programmed. Invertebrates have some examples! The female praying mantis bites off the male's head at the end of intercourse. Earlier, even scientists were horrified how nature created such a soulless monster that eats a beloved creature. Then it turned out that in these species of praying mantis, ejaculation requires that the head be removed, cruelty and gluttony have nothing to do with it. But experts in vertebrates are engaged in gerontology, these examples are not close to them.
How did you come up with this idea?
Under Soviet rule, I lived in an ivory tower because I didn't want to be led by party comrades. I have always been doing only what I wanted, all my life - I am a happy person in this sense. But when this dictate collapsed, I decided to do something that would be most useful for people. It was then that I stumbled upon August Weismann's idea that death is an invention of evolution. Back in 1882, in his famous lecture on the nature of aging and death, he expressed the idea that everyone carries within themselves the seeds of death, such a time bomb. I was so struck by the beauty of this idea that I read everything that was about it - and there were mostly slops that were poured on Weismann, until he, in his old age, already almost blind, renounced this brightest idea of \u200b\u200bhis.
Inspired by this idea, I decided to make a substance that will break the aging program. Then I began to think how such a program could be arranged. All my life I was engaged in breathing, oxygen consumption by organisms. Everyone knows that without oxygen, the brain is already dead in five minutes. But I discovered that there is another breath, harmful, which forms a poisonous form of oxygen. And then I thought: my God, this is just the mechanism of aging - the body itself forms some kind of poison, which slowly drives us to the grave. Then I found out that this hypothesis was first put forward by Danham Harman back in 1956, but he did not believe that the poisoning was programmed, but thought that it was an imperfection of nature. However, I here agree with Francis Crick, who said that every biologist should understand: evolution is much smarter than him, and blaming something on the imperfection of evolution is the last thing. This is not a flaw, but another elegant mechanism of evolution!
Why aging is needed
What is aging for evolution?
It is absolutely clear to me that the limitation of life is a purely evolutionary adaptation. I once found in Aesop a wonderful aphorism that the hare will always run away from the fox, because for the hare it is a matter of life and death, and for the fox it is just a matter of lunch. My father was an amateur hunter, he had already died by that time, and I asked one of his friends: are foxes really involved in the natural selection of hares? After a long discussion over a glass of tea, it turned out that the hunters believe that Aesop was right, indeed, hares always run away while they are young. Only old hares can be eaten by a fox, they run slower.
And then everything became clear to me - the hare is aging in order to increase the pressure of natural selection! Here is a clever hare and a stupid hare, so they will breed stupid and clever hares while they are young, because there is no beast that would distinguish them, they will run away from anyone. But sarcopenia gradually occurs, that is, the number of muscle cells in the muscles decreases and hares run more and more slowly. And now the fox will eat the stupid hare, who does not know the habits of this orange beast, he will not reproduce stupid hares. And the clever one will leave the fox by cunning and give birth to rabbits. My brother physicist immediately made a simple program showing that in just five generations, with enough foxes, all hares will become smart.
In the real world, hares don't get very smart.
Do you think hares are so stupid? You understand a lot! They do run away from foxes, don't forget.
It turns out that aging is necessary, because thanks to the rapid change of generations, evolution is faster?
I don't have a perfect answer to this question. According to Darwin, there is a selection of the fittest. And the more adapted is the one who does not age and does not die.
Is there only one aging mechanism?
That's a very difficult question. I think that the central mechanism is one, a kind of samurai sword for suicide. But to him there are some makeweights, such as cancer. Cancer is also a special program, a quick mechanism for suicide. Maybe there are several parallel mechanisms. But the very fact that there are animals that do not age shows that these mechanisms can be overcome. Otherwise, naked mole rats would not exist. For us, the naked mole rat is the light in the window.
Make a man into a naked mole rat
Are there mammals that don't age?
There are some that live very long and show no signs of aging. Some bats, whales, large turtles ... There are few such creatures, and they are usually devoid of serious enemies, freed from the pressure of natural selection. Some big poisonous toad, for example. Nobody eats her, nobody threatens her. She reached a certain level and now does not age and does not evolve, she is quite happy with herself. All because she's so awful.
And naked mole rats have slowed down evolution?
Yes, this is also the rarest case when an animal managed to find a niche where it has almost no enemies. Most of the diggers are excluded from reproduction, like working ants - they explore the territory and fight, mainly with each other. Only the queen, who lives on everything ready in the center of the labyrinth dug by them, multiplies - she always has food, she is protected from snakes and hostile diggers who could come and be disgraceful.
Excavator can't die of old age?
No one knows. Rochelle Buffenstein in the United States began researching naked mole rats 33 years ago, and the mole rats she caught in Africa are still alive, although animals closely related to them live no more than three years. Some of the diggers died in fights with other diggers. Their incisors are so powerful that they gnaw through concrete, so one bite cuts the victim in half. For them, even special plastic is made that cannot be gnawed. At the same time, the excavator himself is the size of a mouse.
Does a naked mole rat not age in principle, or does it somehow age?
He has no senile diseases. More precisely, some nevertheless found, for example, typical for kidneys, but they pass easily, diggers do not die from them. By the way, my whole project is connected not so much with the prolongation of life as with the improvement of its quality. We want to make a naked mole rat out of a man, which, if dies, is funny!
Maybe the digger is getting old somehow, this is a very difficult question - and this is also one of the troubles of our region. Working in biochemistry, I usually set up the experiment in a day - I started in the morning, and by the evening I was already washing the dishes. I love washing dishes - you are standing in a white coat near the sink, the experience is over, and you might think what happened, no one bothers you, everyone has already left. And tomorrow - the next experience. But the aging of a person lasts for decades, you cannot put an experience here in a day. I connected my sons to my research and started working with my eldest grandson - he is still a schoolboy, I gave him my book to read and suggested that he write down the questions that arise. Maybe the grandson will wait for the main result of our research - the victory over aging.
When to expect a panacea
What will be the treatment for old age?
I have a dream. I remember all the time how the Swiss grew wiser. Your generation has not caught this time anymore, and in the days of my youth it was believed that the most stupid people in the world were the Swiss. And indeed: among those who lived high in the mountains, there were many people with cretinism, small stature and mentally handicapped. And there were a lot of anecdotes about the stupidity of the Swiss. Then they found out the reason - there is too clean water, there is practically no iodine in it. A law was passed on adding iodine to salt - now in Switzerland it is impossible to buy table salt without adding iodine. And all over the world, just in case, they began to add iodine to salt. The nerds disappeared - it was so amazing and so cheap! So: I think that the remedy for old age will need to be added to table salt, just like iodine, and people will take the geroprotector just with food.
More than once I have heard reproaches in your direction that you promised to defeat aging, but as a result, you came up with only drops for the eyes.
No more unfair accusation could be imagined! Yes, we started with the eyes, with a previously incurable senile disease - dry eye. It is very slow, but widespread: 9 million patients in the United States, 25 million in Japan, for some reason it is more violent there. Tears disappear, and instead of them a viscous liquid is dripped, first once a day, then twice, then fifty times a day. If it is dripped more than a hundred times a day, an immune response sores in the eye, and the eye must be removed. We started with the eyes simply because it is much easier to get approval for eye drops than for oral medication. The drops contain an active substance, the antioxidant SkQ, in negligible doses.
SkQ, unlike other antioxidants, penetrates into mitochondria - this is where poisonous reactive oxygen species are formed. It is important that SkQ does not affect reactive oxygen species elsewhere in the cell. This is a terribly delicate question, because evolution has adapted this poison not only for aging, but also for a lot of useful things. This is such a convenient transmission component in different regulatory chains, we cannot live without it.
We have now submitted a request to the Ministry of Health that our medicine be allowed not only to drip into the eyes, but also to be taken through the mouth. After our successes with dry eye, there was a chance to get permission quickly enough.
So you want to use this medicine as a geroprotector for the whole body?
It will still be prescribed for the eyes, although it will affect the entire body. Then, hopefully, we will start releasing SkQ as a cure for neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. After all, we cannot register geroprotectors. Recently, an appeal was written by several of the world's most famous gerontologists demanding to authorize the registration of drugs that help against the entire group of senile diseases - that is, drugs for aging. Until aging is considered a disease, it turns out that we want to create a panacea, a cure for all diseases, and this is considered something impossible, like creating a perpetual motion machine. But in fact, it will not be a cure for all, but only for age-related diseases.
How long will you have to wait?
Such things are not done quickly, you have to proceed with caution. SkQ has an amazing power of effect, a million times stronger than other antioxidants - suddenly it would start to die or go crazy? Therefore, we started with eye drops, which contain extremely low concentrations of SkQ.
We made the eye drops amazingly fast. I drew this substance on a piece of paper sometime in 2003, and we synthesized it the same year. It turned out to be hellishly difficult to clean up. But very little is needed. We then thought at first to release it for animals as a veterinary drug, but then we were persuaded to skip this stage, immediately do drops for people. So, we calculated then how much of this substance is needed per year for everyone who has old dogs, cats and horses - 4 grams for the whole country!
Then we conducted clinical trials on cataract and glaucoma and also received positive results. Now we are starting clinical trials on macular degeneration, and in animals we are studying how the substance affects Alzheimer's disease, diabetes - for diabetes, by the way, in mice, there are excellent results, as well as in terms of the effect on the rate of wound healing. And now the Ministry of Health promises us to include at least cataracts in the list of diseases for which SkQ helps.
Does the cataract disappear?
Disappears, but not all types. The question of age is also important here. For example, if a rat is more than two years old, the substance stops working. But, despite my age, I managed to get rid of cataracts.
Do you take SkQ in a disciplined manner every day?
I accept, yes. As an inventor, I have the right to do whatever I want to do with myself. I don't need any permission from the Ministry of Health for this.
What is most interesting in biology
You created the Faculty of Bioinformatics at Moscow State University in 2002, when it was not yet clear that this area would play one of the central roles in biomedicine and in modern science in general ... You now know in which areas of biology the central events will unfold in the near future ?
Not just bioinformatics, but the Faculty of Bioengineering and Bioinformatics. Bioengineering, in our understanding, is an attempt to son-engineer something better than nature. It is very important! The SkQ project is about that too. I am very proud of this faculty. Last year we had the highest passing score at Moscow State University, the most difficult thing was to enter our place. Very strong guys are coming - out of thirty places this year, five were taken by the winners of the All-Russian Olympiad in Biology.
And I don’t know of any other faculty where the idea of \u200b\u200bfighting aging would be popularized. As a dean, I always devote my first lecture to first-year students to this. Yes, by and large, I can’t talk about anything else - this is called dominant. Pavlov said: “All real scientists are sick people. They are sick with the dominant. " I am a man of science, and the dean is generally unfit.
Where is the most interesting and most promising happening in biology now?
I am always doing the most interesting. Of course, this is an attempt to stop aging. Even not just aging, but counterproductive programs of the body in general - for example, biochemical suicide of the body after a severe crisis. This is such a radical defense against reproduction - the suicide of those in whose DNA errors may have reproduced. The body monitors temperature, sugar levels, the level of certain amino acids - many parameters. And for the key parameters there is, apparently, some kind of allowable interval. As soon as they go beyond the interval, this is a signal for suicide. I once invented such a new biological law and called it "samurai": it is better to die than to be mistaken. As soon as there is a strong chance of making a mistake, there is a signal for death. Now I'm just sure that this program of quick suicide is working in us with the help of some mechanisms that are not yet known to us.
Maybe depression is one of them too?
By the way, our substance stops dying depression. There is such an expression - "pouted like a mouse on a rump." I didn't understand what that meant before. Why a mouse? Why pout? But it turns out that the mouse, about ten days before death, loses all interest in life, is no longer afraid of anything. Becomes almost motionless. Her fur stands on end. And she lies in a ball where this depression found her. You can put a bunch of millet nearby - the mouse will not touch. She didn’t pout. She pouted altogether. And this condition is removed by our substance, it was recently shown in Sweden. Our mice are dying merry.
How do donors treat you?
As soon as we started the project, they stopped giving us grants. Academies do not give money for eternal youth. Everyone tells me: just don't tell me that it's anti-aging. How can I not speak? Now, however, they started to give it again.
But in general, Russia has very favorable conditions for our project. In the USA, there is a tougher attitude towards dogmas; it is much more difficult to overcome dogmas there. By the way, when they talk about the Russian national idea, I always notice that it is completely clear what it is - in free creativity. More recently, the upper classes have been disinterestedly engaged in creativity in our country. Poets and scientists were wealthy people and did what they were really interested in. Then the rich died, but in the Soviet scientific research institutes they were still disinterestedly engaged in creativity. Now they have thrust us into capitalism and are trying with all their might to eradicate this wonderful tradition. But the grant system is killing great science. The grant system is good for supporting secondary science and eliminating bad science. And real scientific breakthroughs need to be nurtured in some other way.
Are there any chances that a national anti-aging program could emerge in Russia?
We will certainly fight for this. But it is important that they support us in the United States too - a bad habit of adopting everything American has developed, and if it goes to America, this will stimulate an increase in funding in Russia as well. The clinical trials of SkQ in the USA have already begun, and I hope everything will be fine. The main drug market is America, 40% of all drugs are consumed by Americans. So far, our drops are sold only in Russia, but someone takes them out - buys them here in boxes and takes them out.
God and gerontologists
Does the religiosity of the society interfere with your studies? I have heard more than once from people that God has determined how long we are supposed to live, and we must not interfere with it.
In the book, I retell a conversation between my friend, President of the Gerontological Society of Russia Vladimir Anisimov, with one of the exarchs of the Orthodox Church. They rode together on the train, and Anisimov asked the priest: "Can gerontology be considered a godly deed?" Father did not answer immediately. He thought, shook his head and said: "If God permits, then you can." I always had a different answer - when my father has a toothache, he still goes to the dentist. Is it pleasing to God? Maybe God punished him with a toothache - let him endure. Speaking out against life extension is like speaking out against antibiotics, because antibiotics have doubled people's lives.
Are you an atheist?
An atheist by education, but it would be more correct to say that I am an agnostic - I have no answer to this question. I will express one idea that brings me closer to religion. Here's the idea. The first artificial living things have now been created. Craig Venter took the bacterium and deleted its own genes. There is a way - a substance is introduced into the cell that disassembles genes, nothing of them remains. Such a cell will live for some time, and then it will die without leaving offspring. And then they took another species of bacteria, read its genes and artificially synthesized their analogs. The DNA obtained in this way was introduced into a bacterium without genes, a half-dead. And she, firstly, began to multiply, and secondly, she became that new bacterium - she completely forgot who she was. In fact, this is a precedent for creating a new living organism, albeit primitive. Although, what does primitive mean? A bacterium has about a thousand genes, it is not a virus with three genes. A real living creature has been created that can reproduce and evolve.
This is what we already know how to do today. And progress in biology is fantastically fast, biologists themselves make mistakes in their predictions all the time, underestimating the rate of change. I remember how one of the greatest biologists said somewhere in 1980 that genes will not learn to read until the end of the 21st century. And they learned - twenty years after this statement. Now in our laboratory your genome will be read in a month, it costs 25 thousand rubles. And soon it will be possible to do it much faster and cheaper. That is, the progress is colossal. And now imagine that the XXII century is already in the yard - really biologists in a hundred years will not want to apply their talents to the creation of an artificial living world, where there will be not only bacteria, but a synthetic lion, a synthetic cow and many new species? They will create the whole world with their own hands - and how then will their activity differ from the works of the Lord God to create the world? Yes, nothing.
I can't imagine more interesting entertainment than creating worlds. Are we not already in such a world created by more intelligent beings?
It is absolutely incomprehensible to me how some things in living nature could arise by chance, without an initial plan. For example, the fact that a bacterium has a real electric motor was a discovery I made back in the seventies. You know, there are motile bacteria that have a tail and they twist it.
Flagellum. It starts up from the potential difference on the bacterial membrane. The system is as if made by a person who had previously made an electric motor, the circuit is absolutely the same, right down to the rotor, reverse and other details. You can adjust the rotation speed of the flagellum, change the direction of rotation. In general, I can't imagine how accidentally thrown chips can fold into an electric motor circuit, even in many steps. I also know other such processes - for example, protein synthesis on the ribosome. I can't imagine how it could have arisen without a detailed plan developed by a very talented creature.
I wonder what will become of a person in a hundred years? After all, we will be able not only to create other living beings, but also to change our genetic program.
I think that by this time we will be able to rightfully call ourselves Homo sapiens liberatus - that is, a person is not only reasonable, but also free, freed from the tyranny of our own genome, which orders us to live so little.
Life without old age
V.P. Skulachev, M.V. Skulachev, B.A. Fenyuk
We dedicate this book to the unforgettable Inna.
V.P. Skulachev M.V. Skulachev B.A. Fenyuk
Youth prolongation theorem (with explanations, illustrations and proof).
Electronic edition; distributed for educational and educational purposes.
The name "Life without old age" was proposed by Inna Severina, who left us untimely on November 9, 2012. For BAF. Inna was a mentor and senior colleague, for M.V.S. - a mother, and for V.P.S. - just everyone, everyone, everyone ...
I.I. Severin (12/29/1940 - 11/9/2012)
Foreword: What is this book?
What happened to all adults on Earth in the seconds when you read these lines? With Americans, Chinese, Russians and Aleuts? With us, with you, with the Pope, with the keeper of the mosque Omar and a negro - a shoe shiner on the outskirts of Cape Town? We've all aged a little. We approached the inevitable end for a few seconds.
Of course, most people don't think about it. Everyone just lives, grows old, and the wisest try to enjoy every moment of the time allotted to us. We are used to thinking that aging is a natural and inevitable process. Natural - of course. But why on earth inevitable?
Even some 100 years ago, the diagnosis of pneumonia was essentially a death sentence. Inevitable and natural. And even earlier, most of the people completely naturally died by the age of 30 from a variety of reasons - cold, hunger, aggression from predators or neighbors, etc. Then fire, clothing, agriculture, the construction of houses and fortifications, medicine, antibiotics were invented , and social (legal) security in general has grown since the time of stone axes. And it turned out that there is no inevitability in many phenomena that previously seemed completely beyond the control of man.
In our book we will try to prove to you that aging also refers to such phenomena. Yes, yes, we believe that this process can and should be taken by a person under his control.
Suppose that at this moment some of the readers decided to close the book, because the authors are clearly unwell. Wait a little longer to wait for the "exposure of black magic." Unfortunately, this exposure, that is, proof theorems about the possibility of life without old age, takes more than a couple of pages of text. We will introduce you to the latest biological research from the world's best laboratories. And they are not so easy to explain. But we are sure that even the very process of proof will allow you to touch the many fascinating mysteries and subtle mechanisms of biology. We will need to tell you about powerful electric fields that make molecular machines rotate in every cell of our body, chemical weapons used by termites - kamikaze, the mystery of the emergence and disappearance of entire species in the process of evolution, ageless creatures and completely different creatures, the process of transformation of which into decrepit the elderly takes only one month.
Moreover, the book is designed for the ordinary (but curious) reader. You don't need to be a professional biologist or doctor to read it. It consists of two parts, interconnected. According to our plan, the first one should, if possible, without unnecessary complications and boringness inherent in many professional scientists, tell you what scientists think today about the aging of the body. The second part is quite serious, in it we tried to cite the facts of scientific observations and the results of experiments, from which the concepts and conclusions outlined in the first part grew. Thus, the first part looks like a piece of delicious cake, and the second part looks like flour, butter, sugar, cream, candied fruits and other culinary ingredients collected in the same place. The first part is much easier to deal with - it is already prepared for you. With the second, you will have to roll up your sleeves, take a recipe and work as a cook, spending your time and mental effort. And the edibility of the final result is not at all guaranteed, here something depends on you! It is possible that you will end up with a completely different cake.
You may have already been interested in biology in general, and in biology - evolution or, better yet, the science of aging - gerontology. Then you can immediately skip the first part and start with the second part - "Proof of the Theorem". For readers who are professionally engaged in the sciences of the living, the appendices to the section "Proof" may be of interest. These summarize some of the research details on which our conclusions are based. A somewhat abbreviated and simplified version of this electronic version was published in the form of a book of the same name by the EKSMO publishing house (Moscow, October 2013).
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Maxim Skulachev, Vladimir Skulachev, Boris Fenyuk
Life without old age
Vladimir Skulachev: Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, leading Russian biochemist, professor, director of the Research Institute of Physico-Chemical Biology, Moscow State University. M.V. Lomonosov. Dean of the Faculty of Bioinformatics and Bioengineering, Moscow State University M.V. Lomonosov
Maxim Skulachev: Candidate of Biological Sciences, Molecular Biologist, Leading Researcher, Faculty of Biology, Moscow State University. M.V. Lomonosov
Boris Fenyuk: candidate of biological sciences, biochemist, leading researcher of the Research Institute of Physical and Chemical Biology, Moscow State University. M.V. Lomonosov
© V.P.Skulachev, M.V.Skulachev, B.A. Fenyuk, text, illustrations, 2013
© Prudnikova O. I., illustrations, 2013
© Tikhonov M.V., photo, 2013
© IDionomics LLC, 2014
© Design. LLC "Publishing house" Eksmo ", 2014
* * *
Dedication
The name "Life without old age" was suggested by Inna Severina, who left us untimely on November 9, 2012. For B. A. F. Inna was a mentor and senior colleague, for M. V. S. - a mother, and for V. P. S . - just everyone, everyone, everyone ...
We dedicate this book to the unforgettable Inna.
V. P. Skulachev M. V. Skulachev B. A. Fenyuk
I. I. Severina
(29.12.1940 – 9.11.2012)
Foreword
What is this book
What happened to all people on Earth in the seconds when you read these lines? With Americans, Chinese, Russians and Aleuts? With us, with you, with the Pope, with the keeper of the Omar mosque, with a shoe shiner on the outskirts of Cape Town? We've all aged a little. We approached the inevitable end for a few seconds.
Of course, most people don't think about it. Everyone just lives, grows old, and the wisest try to enjoy every moment of the time allotted to us. We are used to thinking that aging is a natural and inevitable process.
Natural -of course. But why on earth inevitable?
Even some 100 years ago, a diagnosis of pneumonia was essentially a death sentence. Inevitable and natural. And even earlier, most people completely naturally died by the age of 30 from a variety of reasons - cold, hunger, aggression from predators or neighbors, etc. Then fire, clothing, agriculture, the construction of houses and fortifications, medicine, antibiotics were invented , and social (legal) security in general has grown since the time of stone axes. And it turned out that there is no inevitability in many phenomena that were previously completely beyond the control of man.
In our book we will try to prove to you that aging also refers to such phenomena. Yes, yes, we believe that this process can and should be taken under control by a person.
We will introduce you to the latest biological research from the best laboratories in the world. And they are not so easy to explain. But we are sure that this book will allow you to touch the many fascinating mysteries and subtle mechanisms of biology. We will need to tell you about the powerful electric fields that make molecular "machines" rotate in every cell of our body, about the chemical weapons used by kamikaze termites, about the mystery of the appearance and disappearance of entire species in the process of evolution, about ageless creatures and other organisms, the process transformation of which into decrepit old people takes only one month.
We will try to gradually, step by step, lead the reader to the idea that aging is a program inherited from the ancestors of animals as a special mechanism that accelerates evolution. Since a person no longer relies on such a slow pace of development, the aging program is a harmful atavism that must be canceled. So let's find a tool that can corrupt malware and reverse or at least slow down aging. In recent years, we have been busy with the problem of creating an inhibitor of the aging program. The first positive results of this work will be described in our book. It is designed for the average (but curious) reader. You don't need to be a professional biologist or doctor to read it.
Chapter 1
Reversing aging: is it possible?
The difference between an old cart and an old horse is too striking to consider "wear and tear" as a universal cause of aging.
A. Comfort
In Search of the Philosopher's Stone
The problem of aging has occupied the minds of people since ancient times. Who likes that the older, the weaker our body becomes? Attempts to find out the reasons for this phenomenon and, most importantly, to slow down the aging process of the body have been made since time immemorial. Not everyone knows, but the famous "Philosopher's Stone", turning lead into gold, was supposed not only to enrich a person, but also to provide him with eternal youth.
Not so long ago, physicists practically solved the first problem by making gold from a base metal (mercury) by nuclear fusion. And although artificial gold turned out to be much more expensive than natural gold, one cannot but pay tribute to the greatness of the human mind, which solved the problem that has excited the imagination of people for so many centuries. As for the second problem, biologists were delayed in solving it. The question of the market price is not here, because it was not for the sake of self-interest that the goal arose to rid the human race of such a terrible scourge as senile senility. And now, very recently, hope has also dawned here.
In ancient times, very few survived to old age
Father of the Philosopher's Stone
The Chinese philosopher Wei Po-Yang (II century AD) is considered the first to put forward the idea of \u200b\u200bthe "philosopher's stone" - a substance that makes gold from lead and prevents human aging.
Some scholars believe old age is inevitable
Numerous hypotheses about the nature of aging can be divided into two groups. One of them (pessimistic) postulates that aging is an inevitable result of wear and tear and then breakdown of such a complex system as a living organism. If this is true, we can only describe this process and, as humanely as possible, furnish our slow but inevitable path to the cemetery.
According to another (optimistic) point of view, aging is caused by a special program invented by biological evolution for its own acceleration. Man is no longer interested in his evolution. He ceased to adapt to external conditions, trying to adapt them to his own needs. When he needed to take off, he invented an airplane, and did not wait for wings to grow behind him. That is why, as we said in the preface, aging in relation to a person is a harmful atavism that must be canceled. Not so long ago, biologists have learned to reverse programmed cell death. So why not do this in relation to the programmed death of the body, if aging is one of the phenomena of this kind?
But there are scientists who believe that old age is something that can be avoided.
As of today, the dispute between pessimists and optimists is not over yet. Each side brings its own arguments, and the pessimists are still in the majority. However, the further, the more the balance tilts in favor of the optimists. It is already clear that someone needs to go this way and, without waiting for the final verdict, try to cancel the aging program, if it really exists.
The dominance of the pessimists began with Charles Darwin, who proclaimed that natural selection of individuals is the basis of biological evolution. Within the framework of this paradigm, aging, as a sign that is obviously counterproductive for the body, could not be selected as a result of the struggle for existence. But here is how the philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer defined the role of the individual in 1818, that is, in the pre-Darwinian period of the development of biology: "The individual dies not only as a result of the most insignificant accidents, acting in thousands of different ways, but also by its very nature is destined for death from the moment when the individual has already performed his service necessary to maintain the species."
And here is what Alfred Russell Wallace wrote (who went down in history by formulating the idea of \u200b\u200bnatural selection at the same time as Darwin) in one of his letters at the turn of the 1860s-1870s: “Parents, having produced a sufficient number of offspring, become a hindrance to these offspring, competing with them for food. Natural selection culls parents and, in many cases, gives preference to those races whose members die almost immediately after they have produced offspring. Later (in 1881) the same principle was independently put forward and developed in detail by another great biologist - August Weismann: “The spent individuals are not only useless, but even harmful, taking the place of those who are capable ... I see death not as a primary necessity, but as something acquired a second time as an adaptation " (our italics).
19th century evolutionists and philosophers
Charles Darwin
Alfred Russell Wallace
Arthur Schopenhauer
August Weismann
Weismann was immediately accused of anti-Darwinism by his contemporaries, although Darwin himself was well aware of the limitations of his hypothesis that evolution occurs only in those directions that are favorable for the individual. “There is no doubt,” Darwin wrote in his second famous book, The Descent of Man, “that a community of organisms that includes many members who are always ready to help each other and sacrifice themselves for the common cause will triumph over most other communities, and this it will be natural selection. "
One of the leading figures of twentieth century gerontology, A. Comfort, once remarked that it is hard to believe that a horse and a cart age in the same way. Currently, an increasing number of scientists studying aging, including our team, believe that it is specially "invented" by nature, selected by evolution and is a program encoded in our genes. In our opinion, aging, and hence death from old age, are the last stages of the individual development of an organism (ontogenesis). All biologists have known for a long time that our genes write how we should grow in the womb from a single tiny cell, develop after birth, go through puberty and turn into an adult. And suddenly, for some reason, it is asserted that this is where the programmed development suddenly ends. And the rest of nature seems to let it go. Our whole life is strictly controlled by various genetic programs, but classical gerontologists believe that such important aspects of life as aging and death are left to chance. No, no! We cannot believe in such carelessness of nature! We believe that a destructive genetic program is working in us, which causes a gradual weakening of the functioning of all body systems, thereby slowly and sadly bringing us to the grave.
For all the horror of the picture we have drawn, this is actually an optimistic view of aging. After all, if there is a special program for him, then it is possible. break or, as computer scientists say, "hack". Biology is still too young a science to easily create any new systems. But to break is not to build. We already know how at the very least. And what will a breakdown or even a slight damage to the aging program lead to? Besides, it will be slower. Isn't that what we all want?
But excuse me, it turns out that somewhere inside us there are death genes? Enemies specially introduced to us in order to ensure our biological suicide, and in a very sophisticated, painful, time-stretched way - old age? "Haven't you completely blabbed yourself, gentlemen of biology, in your philosophical constructions?" - you ask. Let's take a closer look.
Death genes
Let's say right away: the genes for the death of a person as an individual have not yet been found. But we must tell you about the most important discovery of the 1970s - the discovery of genes for the death of human (and not only) cells. This discovery was a turning point in relation to aging as a program: direct evidence was obtained that death, in principle, can be programmed in the genome of a living being.
Cell of a living organism
Our body consists of such microscopic cells.
What our body is made of
Our entire body is made up of cells. They reproduce by growing and dividing in half. Each of us once consisted of only one cell - a zygote, resulting from the fusion of the mother's egg with the father's sperm. Since then, this first cell has divided many times, formed new cells, which also divided, specialized: some became neurons, others - blood cells, others - muscle cells, and so on. Inside our body, all these myriads of cells live, breathe, grow, communicate with each other, accurately and consistently perform their functions ... and die.
For a very long time, biologists did not think about how cells actually die. Probably, there was something psychological in ignoring this issue, connected with the sacredness of death and the fear of it. It is not customary for normal people to think too long about the inevitable end. So everyone thought that cells live for themselves, live, and then bam - and die. True, it was a little embarrassing that different cells live for different times: some - for a few days, while others - for years, or even remain throughout a person's life.
However, in the end, this aspect of cell life attracted the attention of biologists. It turned out that in the overwhelming majority of cases, cells die because they have a deadly program that starts at strictly defined moments, with the help of strictly defined substances and ends with the death of the cell itself. This phenomenon was first described in 1972 in the famous work of J.F. Kerr and co-authors and was called apoptosis (in English transcription "Apoptosis").
Any cell can commit suicide
The works of many authors at the end of the 20th century have established that apoptosis is an extremely widespread phenomenon in all types of multicellular organisms. The apotheosis of these studies was the discovery in a worm Caenorhabditis elegans special genes encoding proteins required for apoptosis. The mentioned worm is a very convenient object for biologists, since it is transparent and consists of "only" about a thousand cells. The fate of each cell can be traced by observing the development of this miniature (about 1 mm in length) creature through a light microscope. So, it turned out that at certain stages of development, there is not only an increase in the number of cells multiplying by division, but also a decrease in this amount due to apoptosis (a total of 60 cells go into apoptosis). It is not surprising that the genes for apoptosis were among the genes for the individual development (ontogenesis) of the worm. So the first genes of death were discovered, the authors of these works were H.R. Horwitz, J.E.Salston and S. Brenner.
Where does the name apoptosis come from?
The word "apoptosis" is borrowed from the ancient Roman scientist and physician Claudius Galen. He drew attention to the fact that a broken branch leaves in winter without shedding its leaves, which wither but do not fall off. So it was proved that leaf fall is an active process, and not passive death of leaves from cold, as it was believed before Galen.
Nobel laureates
H. R. Horwitz, J. E. Sulston, and S. Brenner were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2002 for their discovery of the genes for programmed cell death.
It should be noted that the implementation of the apoptosis program requires energy consumption. If a cell is deprived of energy resources, then it will not die as quickly as it was going to. Until a certain stage, the deadly program can be stopped and the "unfortunate cell" saved. With the help of modern genetic engineering methods, it is possible to make a cell that is generally incapable of apoptosis. To do this, you have to turn off certain genes in her, that is, "hack" the program of cell death.
The program of cell death itself has been well studied; thousands of scientific articles have been written about the features of this biological mechanism. It turned out that here we are dealing with an elegant and very reliable cascade of chemical reactions leading to the fact that the cell carefully disassembles itself into parts, which are used further by its neighbors as a building material.
What could be more harmful to a living cell than death? Nevertheless, evolution has created a whole system of proteins, the activation of which leads to its death. So maybe death from old age is programmed? The pessimistic gerontologists answer this question unequivocally: the cells of a multicellular organism are one thing and the organism itself is quite another. If in the process of ontogenesis some cells turned out to be superfluous, like that of that worm, they must be removed, for which evolution came up with an apoptotic mechanism, when an unnecessary cell destroys itself.
Why is apoptosis needed?
Apoptosis plays an important role not only in the development of the organism. Surprisingly, almost all of our cells are terrible melancholic, constantly ready to kill themselves. To continue living, they must continuously receive a signal from the outside: "Live on!" In any tissue there are special extracellular proteins that are specific for this particular tissue and are absent in others. These proteins are called growth factors. There are growth factors for muscles, liver, kidneys, etc. In the absence of these factors, the cell cannot be cultivated outside the body: they quickly self-destruct by apoptosis. They learned how to successfully cultivate animal cells when they began to add the appropriate growth factor to the medium for growing cells. In our body, apoptosis is a guarantee for an organ that cells from another organ will not settle in it. Once in the kidney, the liver cell will not find the growth factor of the liver cells in it and will commit suicide, since the renal growth factor does not replace the liver factor. There will be no one here to send the signal "Live on!" To the liver cell.
In the genome of any cell of a multicellular organism, the mechanism of its self-destruction is encoded. This program is included in situations when a cell becomes unnecessary or even harmful to the body. In particular, if a cell is infected with a virus, this self-destruction helps prevent it from multiplying and spreading. The program of cellular self-destruction is absolutely necessary for a healthy life, as well as to prevent the "riot" of individual cells, which, instead of honestly doing their job for the good of the body, "go crazy" due to damage in the DNA and begin to grow and divide uncontrollably. If this is not prevented at the very beginning, the result of such a cellular rebellion can be a terrible disease known to everyone - cancer.
Love and death of brewer's yeast
By and large, the existence of a death program for an individual cell does not prove anything (except perhaps for a mere trifle: it turns out that nature can program living objects for death). Indeed, all of our cells live in a multicellular organism, and, as mentioned above, the death of some of them can be very beneficial for it. For example, if it is a cancer cell or a cell of the tail of a tadpole, which has come to turn into a frog. Ever wondered where the tail goes in this case? It's very simple: its cells receive the command for apoptosis and carefully self-destruct.
Yeast (their cells under a microscope) have a self-destruction program
The transformation of a tadpole into a frog is also due to the phenomenon of apoptosis
But here's the catch - there are organisms that consist of just one cell. These are bacteria, protozoa like amoebas, and unicellular fungi - yeast. If these organisms have apoptosis, it means that they have a suicide program for the whole organism, since in this case the cell and the organism are one and the same.
If not for apoptosis
Imagine, dear reader, if it were not for apoptosis, then you and I would have, for example, membranes between the fingers, like an amphibian man! Yes, at a certain point in the development of the human embryo, membranes are formed between the fingers, which are then absorbed by apoptosis.
The self-destruction program was indeed discovered in yeast, and more recently, in the first years of the 21st century (by the way, the main role in this discovery was played by Russian biologists from Moscow State University, of which we are very proud!). It turned out that the external signal that triggers the death program can be a pheromone - a substance secreted by individuals of the opposite sex in order to attract a partner.
Of all organisms consisting of only one cell, the amoeba is probably the most famous
We will not go into the details of the sexual process of yeast, but we will formulate only the main idea. A completely natural substance - pheromone, which triggers the sexual process in fungi, kills the yeast cell if something goes wrong. And it does this not because it is poisonous. In addition, the amount of pheromone is very small. No, yeast dies because the pheromone binds to a special receptor protein on the surface of the yeast cell and thus triggers a complex cascade of "self-unfolding" reactions that ultimately lead to the death of this single-celled organism.
Eukaryotes and prokaryotes
Yeast, like all other fungi, as well as plants, animals and people, belong to eukaryotes - organisms in whose cells there is a nucleus and other organelles. Organelles are like "organs of the cell", that is, structures that specialize in performing certain physiological tasks that are important for the life of the cell. Single-celled organisms whose cells do not have organelles are called prokaryotes.
The biological meaning of killing a sexual partner in yeast with the help of a pheromone could be to cleanse the population of “failing” cells that have incorrectly adhered when trying to transfer DNA from a donor cell to a recipient cell. The fulfillment of the "murderous" functions of the pheromone in this case should be facilitated by its prolonged release into a narrow gap between sexual partners.
In addition to yeast, there is a huge world of microorganisms, also unicellular, but much simpler. These are the so-called prokaryotes - eubacteria and archaea, or archaea. They also have self-destructive mechanisms, although they work differently from our cells or yeast.
For example, bacteria have systems of the "long-lived toxin - short-lived antitoxin" type, when the cell slowly synthesizes a protein that can potentially destroy it. Such a murder does not occur "in fat years" as long as amino acids - substances necessary for protein synthesis - are around in sufficient quantities: the cell has time to quickly synthesize an antidote protein - antitoxin, which binds to the toxin and neutralizes it. Toxins are not only synthesized slowly, but also slowly degrade. But the antitoxin disintegrates quickly. As a result, “in lean years”, when there are not enough amino acids for the synthesis of new proteins, the short-lived antitoxin breaks down and disappears, while the amount of toxin decreases only slightly. The result is sad: the toxin, being released from the complex with the antitoxin, kills the bacteria.
If necessary, bacteria (pictured) can also self-destruct
Bacteria die, there are fewer of them, and therefore, their consumption of amino acids also decreases. Eventually, the number of amino acids in the few surviving bacteria rises to a level sufficient to synthesize proteins, and the surviving lucky bacteria begin to synthesize again the antitoxin that binds the excess toxin. Thus, the bacterial population at its (microscopic) level solves the problem of overpopulation of the Earth.
It is significant that not only the lack of amino acids, but also the substrates of respiration and oxygen, the appearance of foreign toxins and antibiotics in the environment, as well as other unfavorable factors inhibiting the biosynthesis of proteins, can include the "toxin-antitoxin" system as the last line of defense of the bacterial population from complete extinction ... According to Lane, the mass death of aquatic microorganisms when viruses appear in the reservoir can have the same meaning: the use of the "scorched earth" tactics as a way to block the advance of the enemy - infection.
Bacteria also have a specific signaling system that triggers a series of events in response to DNA damage. First - the stimulation of repair, that is, the process of DNA repair, then (if this turns out to be insufficient) - the blockade of reproduction and, finally, with an even greater degree of damage - active lysis of the bacterial wall, leading to cell death. This, in general, a merciless principle makes it possible to prevent the loss of the genetic heritage of a species due to errors that crept into the "biological text" of the genome during its preservation and repeated reproduction. As the microbiologist K. Lewis writes: "It is quite possible that the main danger lurking unicellular organisms is not competition, pathogens or depletion of nutrients, but their own clone, which has turned into a group of" hopeless monsters "capable of causing the death of the entire population." To avoid this danger, bacteria with damaged DNA will commit suicide long before the genome deteriorates to such an extent that protein synthesis stops.
So, the death programs, which were initially discovered in the cells of multicellular creatures, also exist in unicellular organisms. Since in the latter case the concepts of “cell” and “organism” coincide, it can be argued that the programmed death of an organism is recorded in the genome of at least this type of living creatures.
“But it is quite obvious,” the pessimists say in this place, “that for an individual there is nothing worse than dying! How could such a harmful trait, which is maximally counterproductive for the individual - its carrier, not be rejected by natural selection?
Replicative aging in yeast
In unicellular eukaryotes, namely yeast, on which a deadly program, triggered by pheromones, was discovered, there is so-called replicative aging: a yeast cell, dividing, can give a kidney, which then gives a daughter cell, about 30 times, after which the reproductive function disappears (completely as in senescent higher animals reaching the state of menopause).
Unfortunately, today we still cannot directly answer this tricky question, although we have certain considerations on this matter. But whatever it may be, even now it is impossible to deny the obvious fact of the existence of death programs for unicellular organisms. And if this is so, then why cannot the aging program be a special case of this type of phenomenon, a kind of slow suicide?
But maybe aging is programmed only in some unicellular organisms, whose lifespan is measured in days, while in humans and all other living multicellular organisms such a program has been lost, and they age and die in some other way? Let's look at this issue.
Date of publication: 18.11.2016.
Why are we getting old? It turns out that old age is not only wear and tear of the body. This is an evolutionary mechanism for the self-destruction of individual organisms, designed to accelerate the turnover of generations. For example, so that only young individuals reproduce, in which genetic information is more likely to be intact. For cells, the phenomenon of altruistic suicide called apoptosis is known. There are situations when the cell hangs the flag "I'm committing myself!" - and neighboring cells take it apart. This is the mechanism of protection of a multicellular organism from sick, infected, defective and mutant cells.
The same phenomenon for whole organisms is called phenoptosis.
What is beneficial to the species and beneficial to the individual does not always coincide. The author compares an individual, a carrier of genes, with a monk-scribe of the sacred text. The text is everything, the monk is just a small link in the chain. His task is to rewrite the text, and the further fate is not important. Figuratively speaking, evolution strives for a young monk to rewrite the text, he will make fewer mistakes. Further, she does not care what happens to the monks who have already copied the text, or are not going to do it. Whether they live or die. But they take up territory and resources.
It may happen that all the territory and resources will be occupied by old individuals, leaving no room for the young, capable of breeding. Then the species will die. By the way, one of the theories of the extinction of dinosaurs is just that.
The history of salmon breeding is interesting. He lives in the sea, where there are rich pastures, but there is an extremely high competition of species. His caviar there will be corny immediately eaten. It is clear why salmon go up the rivers to spawn. But why does he die immediately after spawning? It turns out that in the upper reaches of rivers with clear water the fry will have nothing to eat! But ... The bodies of their parents who died after spawning become food for the crustaceans, and they, in turn, feed the fry. And they will return to the sea as big strong fish, which are no longer so easy to offend.
More about the connection between love and death. In the grass cutter, whose life cycle is two and a half months, a section of the gene responsible for the mechanism of sexual reproduction was isolated. And they removed it. As a result, the fast-growing and rapidly dying grass became a woody bush, began to multiply vegetatively, changed its shape - instead of one outlet, it gave multiple ones. Her life expectancy has increased many times over. But in animals it is impossible to remove a piece of a gene without damaging vital functions; genes control several tasks at once.
At the same time, it turned out that the mechanism of phenoptosis does not work for all living things on the planet. Blue whales, naked mole rats, some species of turtles, sea bass, pearl mussel shell - do not age. They, if not killed by external attacks, die from other causes. In blue whales, the lens of the eye becomes cloudy, they become defenseless. A turtle can no longer support the weight of its shell when it becomes too large. The pearl oyster cannot support too much shell weight with a muscular leg, falls and dies of hunger. There is reason to believe that we will not become immortal by abolishing the mechanism of old age in humans. Limitations in the performance of individual organs and nodes of the body will come out: they are not designed for endless work, and breakdowns are corny accumulating in them. But that's a completely different story.
The fact that free radicals (reactive oxygen species) play a role in aging has been common knowledge for some time. They are fought by antioxidants that have become fashionable, but in fact do not hit the target, and can even harm if overdosed. The target is hidden inside the mitochondria. Then I skip a detailed story from molecular biology, why they do not get in, and how they found a way to deliver it to mitochondria using the "Skulachev ion". In general, on this basis, a medicine was created that affects the mechanism of human aging. It does not radically change life expectancy, but it makes it possible to stay young throughout life.
There is another way to achieve the same goal. This is to eat 40% less. I repeat: eat less. This is not a curative hunger and, moreover, not a forced one. It is a constant conscious limitation, like fasting.
During experiments, it is customary to hide from researchers which group is control and which is experimental. So, after a while of the experiment on mice, it becomes impossible to hide it. Shabby, trembling, twisted, uninterested mice with drooping whiskers, who were allowed to eat as much as they wanted. And vigorous, lively, hairy "skinny" mice. By the way, an interesting fact: it turns out that the mustache is a marker showing the ability of a mouse to reproduce. If they fell out - goodbye, the breeding age is over.
The medicine is now being tested at the Ministry of Health and will continue to undergo it for a long time, because the procedure is not easy and requires long-term follow-up. It can be applied in very different ways, both internally and externally, and treat various diseases that are caused by the aging mechanism. Unfortunately, it doesn't help cancer. In the long term, it will help against cardiovascular diseases, Alzheimer's disease, and prevent some strokes. And also soon there will be cosmetics for the skin - they will appear earlier than others, since the test procedure is easier for external products. So far, eye drops have passed certification in the Ministry of Health - from dry eyes. The book says that from glaucoma and cataracts too. The author himself had a congenital cataract - and passed after a year of using these drops. You can buy them now, and relatively inexpensively. I bought.
Now, of course, there is a clear informational wave associated with this. Maybe not so simple, there are a lot of articles.
But I recommend the book, it is interesting and easy to read. It has two parts: popular science, for the general reader, and the same thing again, in more detail in scientific language - for specialists.
Many questions remain behind the scenes: for example, how will the use of this drug affect the human population. And it will not require any artificial mechanisms for regulating the number of people and their “quality” so that the fate of dinosaurs does not overtake us. It's even scary to discuss.
And the book is like that.
Aging is under human control
HOW TO EXTEND YOUTH
Reversing aging: is it possible?
Cruelty or necessity for survival?
Deadly programs within us: myths and reality
Life or Reproduction - Which to Choose?
The utility principle of grandparents
The enemy is within us
What to do to stay old?
How Old Age Cure Can Extend Lives Now
"Non-drug" from old age
How to prolong youth and live to 122 years
youth
Vladimir SKULACHEVMaxim SKULACHEVBoris FENYUK
WITHOUT AGE
UDC 613 BBK 51.204.0 S 46
Authors of the book Vladimir Skulachev: Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, leading Russian biochemist, professor, director of the Research Institute of Physico-Chemical Biology, Moscow State University. M.V. Lomonosov, Dean of the Faculty of Bioinformatics and Bioengineering, Moscow State University M.V. Lomonosov
Maxim Skulachev: candidate of biological sciences, molecular biologist, leading researcher of the biological faculty of Moscow State University. M.V. Lomonosov
Boris Fenyuk: candidate of biological sciences, biochemist, leading researcher at the Scientific Research Institute of Physico-Chemical Biology MfV named after M.V. Lomonosov
Cover art used by: VikaSuh / Shutterstock.com Used under license from Shutterstock.com
Photo of V. Pozner on the dust cover: Alexey Kudenko / RIA Novosti
Skulachev V.P.
S 46 Life without old age / V.P. Skulachev, M.V. Skulachev, B.A. Fenyuk. - M .: Eksmo, 2013 .-- 256 p. - (Academician Skulachev).
ISBN 978-5-699-67743-6
RAS Academician Vladimir Skulachev and leading Russian biochemists, after many years of experiments, made an outstanding scientific discovery: aging is a program encoded in genes. It can be deciphered and canceled, because it is not for nothing that an animal was discovered that never grows old. On the basis of a sensational study, the authors of the book have created a medicine that cures one of the old age diseases, which was previously considered incurable.
It is possible that this is only the beginning of the path, and in the coming years a drug will be created that protects against old age. To live up to this future, the authors propose 7 principles derived from biological penetration into the deep nature of man. Each of the principles is clear and easy enough to implement if you are driven by love for life and your loved ones. By following these principles, you can slow down the genetic program of aging and make your body think that it is early to age.
Read on, come closer to the fountain of youth - and live long!
UDC 613 BBK 51.204.0
© Skulachev V.P., Skulachev M.V., Fenyuk B.A., text, illustrations, 2013 © Prudnikova O.I., illustrations, 2013 © Tikhonov M.V., photos, 2013 ISBN 978-5-699 -67743-6 © Design. LLC "Publishing house" Eksmo ", 2013
DEDICATION
The name "Life without old age" was proposed by Inna Severina, who left us untimely on November 9, 2012. For BAF. Inna was a mentor and senior colleague,
for M.V.S. - a mother, and for V.P.S. - just everyone, everyone, everyone ... We dedicate this book to the unforgettable Inna.
V.P. Skulachev, M.V. Skulachev, B.A. Fenyuk
/ -H PART II
\.) SCIENTIFIC JUSTIFICATION FOR PROLONGING YOUTH
I. 7.4. How did we begin to treat an incurable disease -
THANKS
Foreword
Aging is under human control
What happened to all adults on Earth in the seconds when you read these lines? With Americans, Chinese, Russians and Aleuts. With us, with you, with the Pope, with the keeper of the Omar mosque and a negro - a shoe shiner on the outskirts of Cape Town? We've all aged a little. We approached the inevitable end for a few seconds.
Of course, most people don't think about it. Everyone just lives and grows old, and the wisest try to enjoy every moment of the time allotted to them. We are used to thinking that aging is a natural and inevitable process. Natural - of course. But why on earth inevitable?
Even some 100 years ago, a diagnosis of pneumonia was essentially a death sentence. Inevitable and natural. And even earlier, most of the people quite naturally died by the age of 30 from a variety of different reasons - cold, hunger, aggression from predators or neighbors, etc. Then fire, clothing, agriculture, construction of houses and fortifications, medicine, antibiotics were invented, and social security has grown since the time of stone axes. And it turned out that no inevitability in many phenomena that previously seemed completely beyond the control of man, there are no phenomena.
THIS BOOK IS PROOF THAT AGING IS NOT INEVITABLE.
STAGE OF DEVELOPMENT OF BIOLOGY AND MEDICINE THIS PROCESS CAN and should be taken under human control.
We bring you the latest scientific research from some of the best labs in the world that the aging program can be stopped. Not all of the new facts have already been explained. But we are sure that acquaintance with these most interesting biological experiments and mysteries will instill in you the confidence that old age is not obligatory for a modern person. Do not be alarmed when you hear about the powerful electric fields that make molecular machines rotate in every cell of our body, about the chemical weapons used by the kamikaze termite, the mystery of the emergence and disappearance of species in the process of evolution, ageless creatures and completely different creatures, the process of transformation of which into decrepit the elderly takes only one month.
The book is designed for the ordinary curious reader. You don't need to be a professional biologist or doctor to read it. It consists of two parts, the first is simpler, the second is more saturated with scientific evidence. The first part will be enough to understand the essence, but the corrosive reader will be able to find in the second part proofs of every amazing fact stated in the first. In 10 chapters of the first part, without unnecessary complications and boring inherent in some scientists, it tells how modern science represents the aging process of the body. The second part, consisting of 11 chapters, is quite serious, it contains the facts of scientific observation and the results of experiments, from which the concepts and conclusions set out in the first part grew. Thus, the first part looks like a piece of delicious cake, and the second part looks like flour, butter, sugar, cream, candied fruits and other culinary ingredients collected in the same place. The first part is much easier to deal with - it is already prepared for you. With the second, you will have to roll up your sleeves, take a recipe and work as a cook, spending your time and mental effort. And the edibility of the final result is not at all guaranteed, here something depends on you!
You may have already been interested in biology in general, evolution or, better yet, the science of aging - gerontology. Then you can skip the first part and immediately start from the second.
PART I
How to renew your youth
Naked mole rat - an ageless animal
Reversing aging: is it possible?
1.1.1. What is aging
The problem of aging has occupied the minds of people since ancient times. Who likes that the older, the weaker our body becomes. Attempts to find out the reasons for this phenomenon and, most importantly, to slow down the aging process of the body have been made since time immemorial. Not everyone knows that the famous "philosopher's stone", turning iron into gold, should not only enrich a person, but also provide him with eternal youth.