Gizmodo
Restricting yourself to a super-low calorie diet has been discovered as a way to extend your lifespan by a noticeable number of years, but it comes with a pretty lousy side effect: you don't get to eat anything. Not worth it! I'd rather die at 70 knowing the sweet taste of ham and cheese Hot Pockets than live to 90 and always be hungry. But there's good news: it looks like scientists have figured out why calorie-restricted diets increase lifespans, and they're going to put that magic in pill form.
It turns out that starving yourself causes your ribosomes (your cell's protein factories) to mutate, which is what leads to the positive effects. And now some smartypants Biologists at the University of Washington have figured out how to induce the life-extending mutation in ribosomes with a drug that doubles the lifespan of yeast cells.
In this project, the UW researchers studied many different strains of yeast cells that had lower protein production. They found that mutations to the ribosome, the cell's protein factory, sometimes led to increased life span. Ribosomes are made up of two parts — the large and small subunits — and the researchers tried to isolate the life-span-related mutation to one of those parts.Bring on the live-forever drugs! The children of the 22nd century will love to hear me spin yarns about the prices of bread and milk in the 1990s, trust me. [Eurekalert via io9]"What we noticed right away was that the long-lived strains always had mutations in the large ribosomal subunit and never in the small subunit," said the study's lead author, Kristan Steffen, a graduate student in the UW Department of Biochemistry.
The researchers also tested a drug called diazaborine, which specifically interferes with synthesis of the ribosomes' large subunits, but not small subunits, and found that treating cells with the drug made them live about 50 percent longer than untreated cells. Using a series of genetic tests, the scientists then showed that depletion of the ribosomes' large subunits was likely to be increasing life span by a mechanism related to dietary restriction — the TOR signaling pathway.
Comments
Can't wait to hear about the side-effects.
I don't know, there is a big difference between 70 and 90, hot pockets or not.
If it increases my chances of one day being able to see the end of the world, I'm all for it.
Oh f***ing hell... Why does everything have to come in a pill form now? What happened to actually eating well and exercising? Oh wait, that's not AMERICAN enough. Everything has to be so easy that it's worthless.
@Papsky: "Side effects may (and by may, we mean will) include: diarrhea, stomach ache, lung implosion, extra limb growth, spontaneous combustion, anal leakage, pupils fall out, head morphing to look like a trout, negative IQ points, and one patient turned into a lemur."
@agent0064life: If it increases my chances of one day being able to CAUSE the end of the world, I'm all for it. ;)
@agent0064life:
2012 isn't too far away ^^
Awww man, I am never gonna get any money from Social Security now!
@DaOtter: You forgot "spontaneous pregnancy without intercourse".
First off, scientifically speaking the article is ridiculously inaccurate, as mutations in ribosomes are simply impossible - the mutation could only occur in the gene that transcribes for the particular subunit of the ribosome.
Second of all, I wouldn't want a scientist who fails at writing concise articles messing around with my cell organelles.
Not to mention your diet would probably still need to consist mainly of something like that "bread in a can" you covered some time ago. Imagine eating that for the next 50 years. Exclusively.
@dwight-schrute: Immaculate conception occured in less than 1% of all test subjects. ;)
@Papsky:
Unfortunately, the side effects are fatal.
@DaOtter: The End of the World has the face of Rumer Willis, and drives like Britney Spears. It's also called Apophis, and there's about a 1 in 4 chance it'll land in the White House front lawn.
It's better to burn brighter, than to burn longer.
So, this would make the maximum human life span 140 years? Or will it just push more people closer to the 120 year mark?
@Kaiser-Machead: true dat
Imagine what fun it will be when all of your cells keep dividing at their normal rate but live 50% longer.
Oh the fun tumors we'll see!
You would die at 90, now you'll get to live to 135, but be horribly disfigured by 30.
Oh yes. I am so looking forward to being a really old person for a really long time.
Hey Mr. Scientist! Could you focus on ways to make me 18-25 for forty years instead of 80-100 for sixty years?
@Papsky: The side effects include rising to ridiculous proportions when stored in a cool dry place and a delicious buttery crust that makes you more palitable to italians.
@Dillenger69: Actually, most mutations occur when the cells are dividing and replicating DNA. As long as the division rate stays the same, there shouldn't be that much of an increase in mutation.
screw that I'm in, I mean if it keeps me alive just long enough to live through the day we admit we are not alone
I'm for it.
My greatest fear is not living long enough to see either the rebellion of our technology against us, or the rise of the zombies.
Every extra year increases the odds.
Immortality drugs should only be available to people who promise not to reproduce. If you have kids, you're out of luck, since we can't sustain an infinite number of people on the planet, all taking the drug. You want a kid, you give up your place in the resource drain.
@Hiphopopotamus: "Awww man, I am never gonna get any money from Social Security now!"
You never were. Sorry.
Immortality's overrated. Your mortality makes you get up and take risks!
@BigViper: Yeah, that's what i thought.. Im Excited to see aliens you know, new inventions and living on the outside world. hope we Cant die.
college girls... I get *older* they stay the same age...
@92BuickLeSabre: I use exercise. It works wonders and its free.
@Hvedhrungr: Actually, mutation is the correct term since it applies to any inheritable trait including genetic sequences. Also, morphological changes in proteins can be due to environmental changes as well as genetic, so observation of morphological changes does not necessarily imply genetic change in the ribosome. In other words, study more molecular biology before you critic another's work.
@Kaiser-Machead: Well, you know what they say, the good die young and pricks live forever.
awesome pic btw
Offical retirement age is 100.
Putting the drug in a pill really sucks and is contrary to the point. A better drug delivery mechanism would come in the form of a drug-laced Twinkie, Ho-Ho, or Ding-Dong. You might as well live long in style.
@ackthbbft: Actually, shouldn't it be made available to those people who saved up enough money for their own retirement? If you want to live longer and I don't have to pay for it, go right ahead...
more twisted western science. or god complex.
longer life span means death of the human species.
@Accelerata: Sounds like a lot of work to me.
The next Viagra...
@emdy: Other people's immortality is overrated.
I'd like to have to opportunity to live forever so it will really mean something when I commit suicide.
That clinches it. I'm moving my couch and my TV into my local Dunkin' Donuts. Gimme a handful of these pills and my remote. If only Elvis would've lived to see this...
Heh...if you think Social Security is fux0r3d now, try it when people are living to be 130...
I don't get it...isn't there an impending population crisis that we've known about for a while? Why are people making drugs like this?
@MartinX: I'm guessing the rise of the zombies will be directly related to this pill. So 2 birds with 1 stone.
@MyPetFly: Haha! At least you stop aging.
Anything to make a buck huh.
Side effects may include: fanged teeth, intolerance to direct sunlight, allergic reaction to garlic, and in some but, not all cases a sudden urge to drink blood.
@Kaiser-Machead: Who said that? Joan of Arc?
It seems to me that life is extended at the wrong end. Add 20 years to my mid life and I'm in.
African kids starve all the time,
they generally live to about 12 years old..
Interesting stuff, and I'm all for it. But there are going to be very interesting consequences - for instance, living an extra 50 years is probably not going to be cheap. If you think the drug companies are charging a lot for drugs now? This is going to be very expensive - like $50k-$100k a year expensive. At least. So now there is yet another division between the classes. And of course the rich get even richer in the extra 50 years of life, passing on more wealth to their rich kids, who also live 150 years... could be a pretty interesting twist for society....
@dwight-schrute: ...in men.