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Health, live longer and healthier
“Live longer and healthier” is the goal of the international team of scientists led by Nektarios Tavernarakis, a bioscientist and professor at the University of Crete in Greece who studies aging, cell death and neurodegeneration. More specifically, the research objective of the researchers is to understand the cellular causes of biological deterioration. “Our goal – said the scientist – is to find the ways to live longer but with a better quality of life in old age “. This is the macro objective of the MANNA (Macroautophagy and Necrotic Neurodegeneration in Old Age) project. ), funded by the European Union. Now there are not many drugs able to counteract the diseases related to old age, even if the symptoms are very strong and painful. Ill health in old age places a huge and growing burden on our health and social systems. Alzheimer’s disease alone affects more than 4.9 million people in Europe, and diseases and disorders of the nervous system and brain cost the continent around 800 billion euros per year, according to 2010 figures.
Health, can the “fountain of youth” be found?
But the question that arises spontaneously is whether it is possible to intervene in the processes responsible for the malfunctioning of the body and brain as we age, managing to remove as much as possible the disorders related to seniority. 150 years ago a French doctor of biological aging, Charles-Edouard Brown-Séquard I try on himself extracts of animal testicles, subsequently declaring to be in better physical and mental conditions. But after those researches, today’s reality confirms that age-related ailments like Alzheimer’s and heart disease have reached epidemic levels in the northern hemisphere. also because the average life span has lengthened but medical research has not kept up with it. Europeans, for example, can catch up with 81.3 years, about 35 years older than those who came into the world at the end of the 19th century. But it is also important to ask ourselves how these years are lived.
Health is a huge burden on health systems around the world
Ill health in old age places a huge and growing burden on our health and social systems. Alzheimer’s disease alone affects more than 4.9 million people in Europe, and diseases and disorders of the nervous system and brain cost the continent around 800 billion euros per year, according to 2010 figures. The current hopes of medicine are placed in the said biological process autophagy (in “Greek to eat”). Cells use autophagy to get rid of toxic material. In seniority the basic cleaning process is less efficient, and this favors the development of inflammation, which causes disease. There is much evidence of the fact. that defective autophagy is the common denominator of many age-related disorders Necrosis contributes to the incidence of cancer, liver disease, stroke, heart disease and age-related degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.
Health, in search of the “polypill”
Research in this area is in its infancy, but an increasing number of efforts seek to develop a single pill to target the biological pathways that also affect autophagy. We are looking for a polypill capable of addressing the underlying mechanisms involved in more than one age-related disease. Attacking these processes could slow down age-related degeneration by keeping people healthy for longer. “GeroProtect” is a project funded by the European Union to find this “geroprotective” polypill that reduces the period of ill health in old age. The MANNA project by Nektarios Tavernakis aims at unraveling the connection between autophagy and age-related degeneration of the nervous system. Much of the research is on the Caenorhabditis elegans worm, which has a nervous system very similar to that of humans.
Health, eating less is a way to live longer
The team uncovered some of the key genes and molecular actors involved in nerve cell necrosis. This confirms that long-term survival and conservation of neurons depend on a subtype of autophagy called mitophagy. One known way to induce autophagy is calorie restriction. In experiments with worms, mice, chimpanzees and humans, the researchers found that consuming less food or reducing an organism’s meal times over the course of a day activates the cellular process. In non-human species, food restriction has also been found to prolong life and reduce or delay the onset of age-related diseases. Depending on the species, the most promising results show an increase in life expectancy between 50% and 300%. When an organism eats little, its cells stop receiving glucose and start consuming their own waste material for energy. The cells enter a state of autophagy and detoxify the body. Among the promising drugs to increase autophagy there are two: urolithin A (produced by some intestinal bacteria after feeding on ellagitannins, present in pomegranates, strawberries, raspberries and walnuts) andto rapamycin (a natural antifungal secreted by soil bacteria). These two compounds prolong life in mice, worms and fruit flies. The hope is to have a drug that is taken such as statins (for cholesterol) or pills to reduce blood pressure that can prevent or delay the diseases of old age.