Age-reversing pill that Nasa wants to give to astronauts on Mars

If this is true and verified through trials this could be a seriously big deal. I have never wanted to live forever but I have wanted to maintain my health without being a health freak simply because I like doing stuff. The "two many people in the world" crowd will come along and complain... but all I can think of are all the people of the world that have some kind of genetic damage that this pill might help, not to mention the old and infirm.. The price ? The effectiveness on humans? We will not know until the trials are complete and the marketing scam begins. Again if true who would have thought there was a pill to repair genetic damage and make one young again ?

Scientists have made a discovery that could lead to a revolutionary drug that actually reverses ageing.

The drug could help damaged DNA to miraculously repair and even protect Nasa astronauts on Mars by protecting them from solar radiation.

A team of researchers developed the drug after discovering a key signalling process in DNA repair and cell ageing.

www.dailymail.co.uk...

Human trials of the pill will begin within six months.

'This is the closest we are to a safe and effective anti-ageing drug that's perhaps only three to five years away from being on the market if the trials go well,' said Professor Sinclair.

The work has drawn the attention of Nasa, which is considering the challenge of keeping its astronauts healthy during a four-year mission to Mars.

Check link for video

a reply to: 727Sky

ummm, mutations in the DNA from ionizing radiation form the sun can't be 'repaired. The cell either dies , in which case it is expelled from the body, or is mutated beyond repair but survives to divide again (possibly giving rise to a plethora of cancers) or is wounded but heals itself and continues its function in some capacity.

Thats like saying we have a magic pill that heals gunshot wounds.

Not buying it.

a reply to: 727Sky

I have a feeling it wouldn't be available for common usage by the public, if the trials prove to be effective. The medical industry in the US alone is worth trillions of dollars per year.

A pill like this would slice the nice chunk of change down significantly, and lobbyists and everyone profiting from this healthcare system (treat the symptoms, not the disease. over-prescribe medicines to generate profits for big pharma, etc.) would never allow it.

My first though is yeah right.. Then I asked myself what I thought a pill like that would cost per year..

Second thought... Yeah right.

originally posted by: intrptr
a reply to: 727Sky

ummm, mutations in the DNA from ionizing radiation form the sun can't be 'repaired. The cell either dies , in which case it is expelled from the body, or is mutated beyond repair but survives to divide again (possibly giving rise to a plethora of cancers) or is wounded but heals itself and continues its function in some capacity.

Thats like saying we have a magic pill that heals gunshot wounds.

Not buying it.

Evidently they and NASA are according to the article

a reply to: 727Sky

Yep. They're scrambling. And it's not just cosmic radiation - acceleration, deceleration, microgravity and solar radiation also affect cells. In a bad way.

...Magic pills don't work btw.

...Even on short missions, astronauts experience accelerated ageing from cosmic radiation, suffering from muscle weakness, memory loss and other symptoms when they return.

On a trip to Mars, the situation would be far worse: Five per cent of the astronauts' cells would die and their chances of cancer would approach 100 per cent.

a reply to: soficrow

On a trip to Mars, the situation would be far worse: Five per cent of the astronauts' cells would die and their chances of cancer would approach 100 per cent.

Now wonder its advertised as a one way trip. Not sure arriving on the planet would provide much more protection, Mars has little protection from the suns radiation in the way of a magnetic field.

The surface of Mars is sterile.

a reply to: 727Sky

This would be more popular than Viagra.

Simple way to offer this while sorting out the population problem.

You can have it for free on the condition you are sterilized.

I read a book on nanotechnology that said in our chromosomes is where our current age sequence is stored. And you could program a virus to go into every cell of your body and reprogram your age chromosomes to be the age counter when you were 20 years old. Then after four months or so and all your cells divide you would grow back to being 20 years old again. Pure science fiction but maybe it's coming into reality based on the OP.

originally posted by: crazyewok
Simple way to offer this while sorting out the population problem.

You can have it for free on the condition you are sterilized.

The more people the better. The more people you have the more interesting culture we experience.

a reply to: 727Sky

I think they are giving it to Nancy Pelosi or baby blood she looked 10 yrs younger this morning on the news. I keep seeing her deage over and over.

originally posted by: 727Sky
Again if true who would have thought there was a pill to repair genetic damage and make one young again ?

It goes further than that. This stuff is hot #.

While it's not the universal cure for aging, it fixes multiple issues with cells. One, it enhances DNA repair. But even better, as cells divide a certain number of times and begin aging, but long before the Hayflick limit, they run out of NAD+ for reasons involving mitochondria becoming lazy. The cell's nucleus uses NAD+ to signal the mitochondria to increase or decrease their output. When NAD+ runs low, the mitochondria drop back to 'idle' and the cell is effectively running in a sort of hypoxic state.

By supplementing with NMN, you can increase the NAD+ levels, restoring cell energy levels, somewhat dumping off freeloading mitochondria (this is the next step you might see - mitochondrial repair) and trigger cell repair mechanisms.

eta: Here is a link to one of the definitive early studies on this effect. The pdf is free. It's a bit thick reading for the novice but pretty interesting.

originally posted by: intrptr
a reply to: 727Sky

ummm, mutations in the DNA from ionizing radiation form the sun can't be 'repaired. The cell either dies , in which case it is expelled from the body, or is mutated beyond repair but survives to divide again (possibly giving rise to a plethora of cancers) or is wounded but heals itself and continues its function in some capacity.

Thats like saying we have a magic pill that heals gunshot wounds.

Not buying it.

Not at all. Your cells have quite a few DNA repair mechanisms. Your DNA is damaged constantly. Since DNA has a good bit of redundancy in the coding, these repair enzymes can quite often strip out and repair damaged bits.

In particular, the most common UV damage to skin cells is easily repaired in most people. UV photons break the base pair bonds fairly often. In many cases, the base pair will simply rebond. In others, a simple repair enzyme will reconnect them. If there are a string of repeats, you can get the base pair breaking in the middle and then rebonding up and down the same side of the strand instead of across to the other complementary strand. This is also repairable. Unless you have XP, in which case you'll lack the appropriate repair enzyme.

a reply to: 727Sky

I don't buy this pill nonsense either. From what I know about the process, the actual DNA must be repaired, chromosomes recapped and telomerase extended. Telomerase controls the number of times a cell can divide, chromosome capping is necessary to maintain the integrity of cell replication. The DNA must be repaired or maintained to produce consistently viable copies of peak cell state.

The only way to do this, of which I am aware, is a genetic payyload driven retrovirus, similar to HIV, but considerably smaller, say 50-60% smaller, in order to get past the blood-brain barrier. But here's the rub, co-ordinated replication of cells over a finite period would result in death of the host. At some point, half the body would try to change the other half all at one time. At that point, the mass required for the new genetic payloads would be 1/4 of the body weight and waste byproducts from conversion would be at least 1/4 of the body weight, resulting in rampant infection and sepsis.

A secondary problem is of course the autoimmune response, normal protein triggers like p53 and p258 might be altered enough during the process, prior to full conversion, to give rise to rapidly growing colonies of altered cells (tumours). You gotta be careful how you f##k with mother nature, she is an unforgiving bitch sometimes.

Cheers - Dave

I researched the path they are on. I know where some of these chemicals are found in nature. The problem is that it will increase your risk of cancer. No ifs ands or butts about it. If you were to cycle it in then your body could fight the cancer in the off times. The cost of this is supposed to be about forty grand a year if I remember right.

Even if they get the three different pathways to work right, the resulting psychotropic effect will probably make people a bit crazy. You cannot seperate the anti-aging and growth hormone chemistry without causing some bad effects. Do teenagers act rationally"

Another problem is that when you discontinue use, you will possibly age at an increased rate. I found no real verification of this in the information I read but did find some indirect possible ways you could be addicted.

There are natural ways to do this, but even with those you will not get immortal. I actually read the sales pitch research on this and unless they altered something substantially, there will be problems. It will be ten to twenty years down the line most times before you get the side effects. What bad effects would happen if you were a teenager with super regeneration ability for twenty years? You will be able to tell who is taking it, they will have acne.

a reply to: Bedlam

Your cells have quite a few DNA repair mechanisms. Your DNA is damaged constantly. Since DNA has a good bit of redundancy in the coding, these repair enzymes can quite often strip out and repair damaged bits.

I know. On earth, inside the magnetic field, under the atmosphere. Whole different ball game in space, on Mars, outside these protections.

They would be better off providing protection in the form of 'water cells' or in a pinch some kind of lead lined 'coffins' during CMEs's for instance. Once on mars I suppose they could tunnel into the permafrost. Bring slave laborers, might take a while.

I appreciate the rundown though...

Can they replicate conditions of space here on Earth for experiments? If not will they send modified mice or primates to space for experimentation first? This seems like a logical step in process(although I frown upon experiments on primates personally).

I wonder if one day they will be able to genetically modify DNA by adding genes or DNA parts from Tardigrades to our own. I read that was a speculative idea somewhere.

Source

originally posted by: dfnj2015
a reply to: 727Sky

This would be more popular than Viagra.

For about a year. Then Viagra would skyrocket to levels never before seen by mankind.

Keith Richards blood. The answer is there. Who else could do every imaginable thing to kill a human body and still thrive?