Happy birthday, again. Are humans soon going to be able to live to 500 years old? New research using worms has seen a breakthrough in anti-ageing. Source: ThinkStock Source: ThinkStock
IF YOU’VE always wanted to live to see the world in 500 years you’re in luck as a new scientific breakthrough has seen worms extend their lifespan fivefold and the same could be applied to humans in a bid to stop ageing.
In an article in The Daily Mail, researchers at the Buck Institute of Age Research in California have been toying around with the genetic pathways in the Caenorhabditis elgans worm and found that certain interactions between the mutated molecules resulted in a boost in worms living to “the human equivalent of 400 or 500 years”.
According to lead scientist, Dr Pankaj Kapahi, “the study raises the prospect of anti-ageing treatments” but before you start panicking about all the birthday parties you’ll need to attend “it could take years of research to extend humans’ lives dramatically”.
The results could perhaps one day be used to target specific anti-ageing in the human body and here’s the science behind the research, according to the article:
The Caenorhabditis elegans worm is the first animal to have its whole genetic code mapped and could hold the key to long life in humans. Source: Wiki Commons Source: Supplied
The study involved blocking key molecules that affect the action of insulin and a nutrient signalling pathway called Target of Rapamycin (TOR).
Single mutations in the TOR pathway were known to extend the lifespan of C. elegans by 30 per cent, while insulin-signalling mutations could double the amount of time they lived.
Adding the two together might have been expected to extend longevity by 130 per cent, but the combined impact turned out to be much greater.
This interaction between genes may be the explanation behind why certain people live long, healthy lives. The idea is to now apply the research to mice to see if the same effect occurs in mammals and hopefully one day we’ll all be able to age as slow as Joan Collins, too.
