Is human aging still mysterious enough to be left only to scientists?

Abstract

The feasibility of reversing human aging within a matter of decades has traditionally been dismissed by all professional biogerontologists, on the grounds that not only is aging still poorly understood, but also many of those aspects that we do understand are not reversible by any current or foreseeable therapeutic regimen. This broad consensus has recently been challenged by the publication, by five respected experimentalists in diverse subfields of biogerontology together with three of the present authors, of an article (Ann NY Acad Sci 959, 452-462) whose conclusion was that all the key components of mammalian aging are indeed amenable to substantial reversal (not merely retardation) in mice, with technology that has a reasonable prospect of being developed within about a decade. Translation of that panel of interventions to humans who are already alive, within a few decades thereafter, was deemed potentially feasible (though it was not claimed to be likely). If the prospect of controlling human aging within the foreseeable future cannot be categorically rejected, then it becomes a matter of personal significance to most people presently alive. Consequently, we suggest that serious public debate on this subject is now warranted, and we survey here several of the biological, social and political issues relating to it.

Population Aging in the European Information Societies: Towards a Comprehensive Research Agenda in eHealth Innovations for Elderly

“…They react primarily to anti-aging interventions like regenerative medicine, stem-cell therapies, telomerase and efforts to mimic the effects of caloric reduction [20,21,22,23]. Other authours suggest that in order to maximise the benefits associated with eHealth interventions and their potential to improve the health sector whilst minimising their risks, eHealth technologies should be evaluated during all their life course: during design, development and deployment stages [24].…”

Effects of Exogenous Melatonin—A Review

“…Growing expansion of so-called antiaging remedies promoted by a variety of companies promising increased human longevity induced hot debate on antiaging medicine in the scientific community (29,45,46). Discussing what is known about the possibility of slowing, stopping, or reversing aging in animals and how this might be applied to humans, Butler et al (29) concluded that there is no convincing evidence that the administration of any specific compound, natural or artificial, can globally slow aging in people, or even in mice and rats (29).…”

Sustainable development, biotechnology and the North‐South divide

“…Yet, there are already signs of a potential division of humanity into the biotechnologically-modified haves and the unengineered have-nots. In a recent issue of this journal, (2) several biogerontologists urged that the time is ripe to begin research on the reversal of human ageing (and see correspondence Ref.…”