Returning to youth has been the wish of mankind from ancient times to the present. Shortly after Qin Shi Huang ascended the throne more than 2,000 years ago, he sent 3,000 boys and girls down to the East China Sea to find the "elixir"; in the 16th century, the Spanish explorer de León traveled thousands of miles to the New World to find the legendary Island of Pimini of the Indians, hoping to taste the "Fountain of Youth" that made people look less beautiful.
These actions are often fruitless and are denounced by the world as a fantasy. However, with the advancement of science, the previously thought impossible cognition will be broken, and the editing of senescent cells at the cellular level into a youthful state can now be achieved.
01 "Micro-operate" on cells, returning to 0 years old at age 114
Scientists from the Alameda Academy of the United States performed "micro-manipulation" of 114-, 43-year-old and 8-year-old B lymphocytes, using only 4 factors (Oct4, Klf4, Sox2, c-Myc), which generally reversed the length of telomeres symbolizing age to the level of 0-year-old stem cells, and the paper was published in the journal BBRC Communications.
This "micro-manipulation" technique is called epigenetic reprogramming. Just as a newborn baby grows old, induced pluripotent stem cells in the body are like "babies", and differentiated mature somatic cells are like "aging adults". Through epigenetic reprogramming, the original mature somatic cells can return to undifferentiated stem cells and "rejuvenate" at the cellular level.
The four factors involved in the experiment played a key role, and its discoverer, Shinya Yamanaka, won the 2012 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. The factor washes away the imprint of cellular senescence and turns mature somatic cells into stem cells, but has been criticized in the past for the side effects that can lead to cancer.
Similar to the time of the Alameda College scientist's post, another paper from Stanford University on "incomplete reprogramming" addresses such problems. With the improved technology, the old cells will not completely return to 0 years old, but will be younger than before. The advantage of this practice is that it not only rejuvenates the cells, but also avoids carcinogenic side effects.
02 Invest 20 billion yuan, and the young mechanism is gradually clarified
The lure of near-rejuvenation has led to no shortage of investment in the field of cell reprogramming. After the resignation of former Amazon CEO Bezos, he spent $3 billion (about 20 billion yuan) to set up Altos, recruiting a number of Nobel laureates and authoritative experts to study the more specific mechanism of cell reprogramming.
At present, the anti-aging company has confirmed that after incomplete reprogramming, the subjects' DNA methylation, transcriptome and metabolome have improved, and they have converged towards a younger level. Still, the technology is still far from actually landing, and The New York Times believes it will be 50-100 years from now.
The rich who are facing the threat of aging can't wait so long, such as 94-year-old Li Ka-shing was exposed to spending 1.56 million yuan to eat NAD molecular precursors ("Ai MuYin" containing substances), mentally strong, still able to take a 33-year-old girlfriend to swim in Yueben. According to reports, the contents of "Aimuyin" have recently been filed through the raw materials of the Food and Drug Administration, and more than 200,000 high-net-worth people have been obtained in Channels such as Bodong, and it is currently planned to expand the 10,000-ton factory in Yuyao, Zhejiang.
The difference between cell reprogramming technology and NAD molecular agents is that the former can completely reverse aging from the cellular level, but it is not yet mature; while NAD agents such as "Aimuyin" can increase the muscle strength, auditory performance, insulin resistance and other abilities of the elderly by supplementing exogenous substances, although they have not reversed aging, they can make the body grow old.
03 Future prospects: everyone is 100 years old and survives with diseases
With the advent of technologies such as cell reprogramming, humans may be able to live to be 100 years old in the future. This is the prospect described by Professor Linda of London Business School in "100 Years of Life". According to statistical analysis by the University of California, Berkeley and the Max Planck Institute, children born in 2007 have a half chance of surviving to the age of 107, compared with 104 and 103 in the United States and the United Kingdom.
But the increase in longevity does not mean that the disease is far away, and the 86-year-old French actor Alandron can't stand the torture of old age and chooses to go to The Swiss Anle S, reflecting the difficult situation faced by many elderly people at present. How to ensure longevity and health, has become the focus of research in the medical community, NAD as the most molecules in the human body in addition to water, its precursor supplement "Aimuyin" has attracted the attention of scientific research institutions in various countries, and the contents have become laboratory raw materials for Harvard University and Sichuan University.
"A hundred years old life is coming, everyone will be sick, but can survive for a long time." Chen Dongsheng, chairman of Tai Group, said that in the future, longevity will also have sufficient financial resources to meet healthy life, so in order to ensure the high quality of life in old age, it is also necessary to re-plan a longer life than expected, and save more adequate pensions.