What we should probably say is that
Engineered Negligible Senesence is really making
progress, and that we think we have a fairly decent chance of implementing
Physical Immortality with Rejuvenation Included, although our debugging phase is
likely to go on for centuries or millenia. We could make many human cells subject to
replicative senescence immortal in vivo, starting in the 1990s, by the activation of
telomerase using hTERT transfection techniques. This created a climate of good hope
for humans, if not for mice. We think some of the pioneers of this work are already
immortalized by hTERT transfected into their nuclear DNA, or by plasmids, or by
the use of chemical activators that stimulate human genes to produce telomerase
and cause telomeres to lengthen and become capped structures, reversing cellular senescence
and causing old cells to recover the immortal phenotype in vivo. The lengthened telomeres
cause their fibroblasts, normally limited to just 50 divisions, to be capable of many more
cell divisions, and to turn off dermal fibroblast expression of destructive collagenase and stromelysin
matrix metalloproteinases as gene expression becomes youthful. Simultaneously, these
fibroblasts begin to excrete collagen and elastin as they manage the extra cellular matrix, restoring
youthful good looks. Geron Corporation identified some of the safest small molecule telomerase
activators in their patents, obtaining them in some cases from extensively studied medicinal
plants such as Astragalus Membranaceus or ethanolic extracts of Astragalus Membranaceus.
Such medicines can be used to refresh many different cell types by activating telomerase. Until the
molecular biology of the cell was advanced to the contemplation of telomere homeostasis and its
role in maintaining cells in a healthy, youthful state, we didn't see old people getting younger. Now
we can buck up our stem cells with telomease activation in a way that restores our skin and our hair,
refreshing hair melanocytes, for instance, from adult stem cells in a way that can make us seem to
be young again. Simultaneously, we can refresh the endothelial cells lining the circulatory system,
stopping atherosclerosis before it develops. We can presently restore cellular telomeres by about
460 bp per year, which amounts to about 77 TTAGGG sequences per year, or about 45 turns of
the double helix of DNA. Since we typically loose 50 bp/year if nothing is done, we can now time
travel backwards in time as far as our phenotype is concerned by about 9 years/year. After a
year of treatment, 59 looks 50! Then the next year, 60 looks 41! After the 3rd year, 61 looks 32, and
by then people are impressed that we are getting results. Admittedly, there are many factors to
consider in optimizing all factors involved for travel into our next 3.5 billion years of tomorrows,
but now the situation looks hopeful, and will look increasingly so every year as more and more
elderly people recover the youthful phenotype and begin to exhibit symptoms associated with
physical immortality. Telomerase activation has a cumulative impact associated with its cellular
memory in chromatin that will be impressive to observe. Great results will be exhibited with
pride and optimism as they are obtained, and popular insight into the techniques involved will
free men from the shackles of aging in a way that will be spectacular over the coming decades. Not
blowing our minds with death periodically will improve matters, justifying the post-evolutionary phase
of continued thought and activity.
Edited by jamesagreen, 02 April 2008 - 09:45 PM.
