What if human longevity really only had one limit? One researcher claims that exceeding 1,000 years – or even reaching 20,000 years – could become possible, on one condition. If you had the chance to live more than 1,000 years, would you do the right thing? Without necessarily thinking about the consequences of such longevity, many people immediately answer “Yes” to this question. But there’s an important point to be made here: living to a ripe old age is possible, but you need the health to go with it.
According to Joao Pedro de Magalhaes, Professor of Molecular Biogeology at the Institute of Inflammation and Ageing, University of Birmingham, UK, humans could well live for several thousand years in the future. But there is currently one crucial point missing to unlock this possibility.
The mysteries of ageing
This professor, renowned for his quest for immortality, maintains that understanding the mechanisms of aging is the key to everything. Joao Pedro de Magalhaes devotes much of his life to studying the genomes of long-lived animals such as the Greenland whale and the naked mole rat. For the researcher, the future of biogerontology lies in bringing the ageing process to a complete halt.
“We need to learn to repair DNA and reprogramme cells for a radically different ageing process”, the researcher recently told the ScienceAlert website. This is one of the mechanisms found in the Greenland whale, which has the ability to repair its DNA, enabling it to cope with different diseases to humans.
In humans, the p53 gene is found on chromosome 17: it is nicknamed the “tumour suppressor” because it controls cell growth and division, and is capable of sending signals to other genes to help repair damaged DNA. However, it is inactive in 50% of cancers, and contributes to reducing the body’s life expectancy.
Scientific progress offers hope
Magalhoes argues that if ageing is programmed into our DNA, it would theoretically be possible to reprogramme cells to modify the genes involved in the ageing process. To support his argument, he refers to the progress that has been made in medicine over the last century: “My great-grandfather died of pneumonia, which was one of the main causes of death in the 1920s. Today, we can cure that with a simple dose of penicillin. I think we can do the same with ageing”.
However, the researcher does not believe that the cure for eternal youth is any closer. He does think, however, that it may be possible to draw inspiration from certain compounds found in animals to extend our life expectancy. This is particularly true of rapamycin, which is known to extend the life expectancy of certain mammals by 10-15%, and is already used as a drug for organ transplants in humans.
“I am optimistic that we will develop drugs similar to statins, which we take every day to reduce the risk of heart disease, but for the purpose of longevity”, says Joao Pedro de Magalhaes. “If we could slow down human ageing by 10 or even 5%, that would already be incredible”. A life of 1,000 or 20,000 years is not for tomorrow, but in a few centuries’ time, why not?
We already have “the cure for eternal youth” — it’s called death.