The future of treatments and the concept of longevity escape velocity

Aubrey de Grey’s approach is as follows: we have identified the seven underlying mechanisms of aging and will soon be able to intervene at the time of cellular damage. In the absence of prevention, we will be able to treat, as and when it appears, the aging of our cells.

This is where two concepts come in: “robust human rejuvenation” and “longevity escape velocity“. The robust human rejuvenation consists of a major discovery, allowing for example to add 30 years of life to a person currently 55 years old. This will be the “eureka” moment of research against aging. From this date, new treatments and refinements of the initial discovery will regularly add years of life in addition to the initial 30 years planned. This is what Aubrey de Grey calls longevity escape velocity and which leads to a simple observation: the first person to live 1000 years will be about 20 years younger than the first man to live 150 years, due to the exponential implementation of treatments. He makes this postulate based on scientific developments in other fields and regularly gives the example of aviation: in 1903, the first aircraft is built (this is the fundamental discovery), in 1927, the first solo non-stop flight over the Atlantic takes place, in 1949, the first jet aircraft is launched and in 1969, the first supersonic flights begin. This is what Aubrey de Grey defines as a growing and exponential improvement of technologies: from the major discovery, technological evolution is rapid and will, in his opinion, regularly add years of life.

What about treatment options?

A solution for every problem. Aubrey de Grey focuses on regenerative approaches to anti-aging medicine, i.e. technologies that allow the normal restoration of tissue structure and/or function after damage has occurred.

Issues Potential therapies Intracellular waste Transgenic microbial hydrolases: enzymes capable of destroying the waste, which are not present in our bodies Intercellular waste Stimulation of phagocytosis by our immune system: macrophages in particular, whose role is to eat waste products Nucleus mutations KO of telomerase and increase in the number of stem cells: the goal is to decrease the number of cell divisions in order to reduce the risk of mutations, while maintaining a normal level of renewal with stem cells Mitochondrial mutations Allotropic expression of the 13 proteins encoded by mtDNA through the integration of this DNA sequence into nuclear DNA Stem cells loss Cell therapy using growth factors and stem cell addition Increase in senescent cells Removal of senescent cells by targeting, mostly by boosting "suicide" genes Increase of intercellular protein links Enzymes that can break these protein links between the cells

Some of these therapies are already well advanced and may soon lead to clinical trials. Important discoveries have also been made in recent years, including iPS cells (stem cells that we can control) and genetic editing tools (see CRISPR-cas9). However, as Aubrey de Grey regularly says, we don’t know when the discovery will come that will change everything and quickly lengthen our healthspans and lifespans!