Anti-aging advances - Cognitive Neuroscience lab Tea Party 2009_Anti-aging... · Anti-aging...
Transcript of Anti-aging advances - Cognitive Neuroscience lab Tea Party 2009_Anti-aging... · Anti-aging...
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Anti-aging advances
Michael Chee Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School
+Aging: The bad news
With the possible exception of
caloric restriction* nothing else has been conclusively shown to slow the aging process
* clear evidence in some animals but human data is conflicting
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What’s the good news ?
+Anti-aging vs. increasing longevity: what’s the difference
Aging refers to biological changes at the cellular level
Longevity can be achieved by dodging things that would otherwise kill you
+Dodging what?
Major problems associated with increased age Heart attacks Stroke Cancer(s) Neurodegenerative disease Complications of Diabetes Mellitus Degenerative joint disease Osteoporosis Cognitive decline / loss of musculo-skeletal
integrity
+Finding the fountain of youth
+There is no free lunch…
+Finding solid evidence is a slow process
Listen to old men (and women)
Test animals Is the animal model relevant to humans How long will it take to generate data?
Sift through lots of research data
+Resveratrol: new life from old grape skins?
From red grape skins
Very high quantity required
Activator of Sir2
Mimics Caloric Restriction
+Caloric restriction
The ONLY method known to influence aging and increase longevity
May act through epigenetic pathways related to the developmental theory of aging
Relationship with IGF-1?
+Dietary supplements
Operate on the assumption that more of a good thing is better
Seek to boost intake of substances that are found in foods
Provide these substances in purified form
Clinical trials that evaluate the usefulness of supplements evaluate a particular dose range
+Vitamin supplements to prevent cancer
+Vitamin supplements to prevent cancer
Vit E + selenium reduce gastric cancer (Chinese Cancer Prevention Study 1993)
Beta-carotene supplementation may increases the risk of lung cancer (CARET 1994)
Vit E + Selenium supplementation do not reduce the risk of prostate cancer (SELECT 2008)
Vit D may be useful in reducing risk of breast and colorectal cancer (2008 metanalysis)
Vitamins A, D + E supplementation do not appear to reduce the risk of cancer (2009 metanalysis)
? Benefit of Vit C
+Anti-oxidants …1
Normal cellular processes result in generation of ROI
ROI – Reactive oxygen intermediates
These damage cellular structures
Normally there is damage control
Damage control weakens with age
+Anti-oxidants …2
Vitamins A, C & E, Co-enzyme Q10
Resveratrol
+Genes and cancer risk
Early days; most of 240 published associations only a handful were reliable
BRCA1, BRCA2, PARP1: Breast cancer
XRCC1 & ERCC 2: Lung cancer
CCND1: Head and neck cancer
+Gingko and memory
Does not reverse Alzheimer’s
Does not have short term benefits of improving cognition in healthy persons
+Genes and aging
Many candidates: see
http://genomics.senescence.info/genes/clues.html
Latest candidate is FOX03A
Environment influences gene expression: your fate my be determined but you can still make a difference