It was once thought that the idea of living for hundreds of years was the dream of billionaires and tech moguls.
But scientists at the forefront of anti-aging research believe they are about to develop a pill that could lead to people living up to 200 years or more.
The medical advances of the last century have made humans in rich nations live to the age of 80, almost double the average life expectancy in the early twentieth century.
Improved nutrition, clean water, better sanitation and great leaps in medicine have been key to prolonging human life. The oldest known person, the Frenchwoman Jeanne Calment, who sold canvases to Vincent Van Gogh when she was a child in the late 19th century, lived to the age of 122 and died in 1997.
There is some debate as to whether humans can naturally live far beyond this age, but science is expected to take human life beyond what is currently thought possible.
Dr Andrew Steele, a British computer biologist and author of a new book on longevity, told MailOnline that there is no biological reason why humans cannot reach 200 years of age.
He believes the breakthrough will come in the form of drugs that remove “zombie cells” from the body, which are believed to be one of the main culprits in the breakdown of tissues and organs as we age.
Pills that remove these cells from the body are already in human testing and could be on the market in as little as 10 years, according to Dr. Steele, who believes anyone reading this could reach 150 with the help of drugs.
Another field in particular that arouses the interest of anti-aging scientists is the study of the DNA of reptiles and other cold-blooded animals.
Experts at Michigan State University have begun studying dozens of different types of long-lived reptiles and amphibians, including crocodiles, salamanders, and turtles that can live up to 120 years. The team hopes to discover “traits” that can also be addressed to humans.
Some experts think that eradicating the big killers (cancer, dementia, and heart disease) could be the real key to longevity.
Dr. Andrew Steele (pictured left), computer biologist and author of Ageless: The New Science of Getting Old Without Getting Old, said MailOnline scientists are about to develop a pill that could lead to people living up to 200 years and beyond. – and it could be just a decade away. Dr. Peter Fedichev (right), a molecular physicist who is the co-founder of biomedical and artificial intelligence firm Gero, says humans could reach 150 if humans eradicated the leading causes of death.
The National Statistics Office predicts that the life expectancy of men born in 2070 in the UK will reach 85 years on average, while women will be almost 88 years old when they die.
The oldest living woman, Jeanne Calment (left, enjoying her daily cigarette and a glass of red wine on her 117th birthday in 1992) in France, was 122 years old when she died in 1997. Jiroemon Kimura (right , smiling after receiving the Guinness World Record in 1997). 2012) holds the men’s record, dying at age 116 in Kyoto, Japan in 2013.
WHICH ANIMALS LIVE MOST AND HOW DO THEY DO IT?
The jellyfish turritopsis nutricula is technically immortal and could live for 1000 years
Jellyfish
The jellyfish turritopsis nutricula is technically immortal and could live for 1000 years.
This is because it has a unique trait that allows it to reverse its cells in childhood after reaching sexual maturity.
The jellyfish, which is no longer than a nail, is able to reverse its own aging process.
It means, theoretically, that the only thing that stops them from living for millennia are predators.
Scientists are still studying the exact way it is able to reverse the aging process, but it is believed that stem cells may play a role in the process.
Stem cells are cells created by the body that can be transformed into any other specific cell type.
They are the focus of research into various chronic diseases, such as heart disease, for their potential to become healthy blood vessels and repair the organ.
The Galapagos tortoise can live up to 120 years
Turtles
The Galapagos tortoise, discovered in the group of islands where Charles Darwin devised the theory of evolution, can live up to 120 years.
Scientists believe that one of the reasons for its long shelf life is the way its cells work.
All the cells in the body divide up to a maximum number of times before they stop changing and become a senescent cell or “zombie”.
Scientists believe that aging is caused because more cells become senescent over time.
If you put a human cell on a Petri dish, it would divide about 50 times, while a Galapagos turtle sees that its cells can divide more than 100 times.
Turtles also do not suffer from any natural predators in their habitat, which means they regularly enjoy their entire lives.
Saltwater crocodiles tend to live up to 70 years in the wild, but can live up to 100 in captivity.
Crocodiles
Saltwater crocodiles tend to live up to 70 years in the wild, but can live up to 100 in captivity.
Like the Galapagos tortoise, crocodile cells are especially resistant to senescence.
This means that they are unlikely to die of old age alone, with limits on their lifespan usually caused by external factors, such as habitat degradation or hunting.
Studies on crocodile intestinal bacteria also found that it had anti-cancer properties.
And crocodiles are also apex predators, meaning they are not usually killed by other animals, other than humans.
Dr. Steele, author of Ageless: The New Science of Getting Old Without Getting Old, told MailOnline, “I don’t think there’s any absolute limit on how long we can live.
“Every few years there are studies that propose some kind of fundamental limit in human life, but they always lack a crucial piece: we have never before tried to deal with the aging process.
“I can’t see the physical or biological reason why people couldn’t live to be 200; the challenge is whether we can develop biomedical science to make that possible.”
Other experts believe humans could live up to 150 naturally, if not for chronic disease, including Dr. Peter Fedichev, a Russian molecular physicist who runs an AI Gero biomedical company.
His company has been studying the genetic data of 500,000 Britons to achieve the company’s goal of “hacking aging,” as they call it.
Gero researchers made use of an instrument, called DOSI (indicator of dynamic state of the body), which takes into account age, disease and lifestyle factors, to determine how resistant it is the body, including its ability to recover from an injury or illness.
Using mathematical models, he calculated the maximum age from which the body can still recover, if not altered by drugs or gene therapy, is between 120 and 150 years.
The findings were revealed in a study published in the journal Nature Communications last year.
But Dr. Fedichev warned that extending life without improving the quality of life would be useless because very old people would be fragile and prone to disease, meaning new drugs will be vital in the pursuit of eternal youth. .
He told MailOnline: “This extension of life would increase its useful life beyond the end of its health period and therefore reduce its quality of life.
“Only addressing the root causes of aging can help bring humans closer to insignificantly senescent animals, intercept aging, and increase our productive lives a hundred years or more.
“That’s why we call for a reorientation of our attention from diseases to aging, from incremental solutions to more radical ones using these slow-aging animals as inspiration.”
Dr. Steele says new advances in senolithics could extend life and quality.
Senescent cells, called “zombie cells,” are cells that eventually stop dividing and then accumulate, releasing compounds into the body that accelerate aging.
Experts believe that younger people with healthy immune systems are better able to remove damaged cells, but as people age, they are not removed as effectively and accumulate causing potential problems.
Dr. Steele said that if you put a human cell on a Petri dish, it would split about 50 times before stopping, while a Galapagos turtle, which can live up to 120 years, sees its cells divide more than 100 times.
The study of this type of long-lived reptile may help researchers understand more about the aging of human cells.
Since the 1960s, scientists have known that as we age, we accumulate an increasing number of these cells, but it was unclear whether they were just a product of aging or whether they caused it.
The breakthrough came in 2016 when scientists found that removing cells from mice, usually with a short shelf life and plagued by various age-related conditions, by injecting them with a synthetic drug called AP20187 extended its life by up to 35%, which suggests. senescence was behind aging itself.
Since then, there have been a number of studies confirming the importance of these cells in the aging process.
In 2019, research in the journal Aging Cell showed that old mice pretreated with Navitoclax, an experimental anticancer drug that kills senescent cells, recovered at rates similar to younger mice from an induced heart attack, increasing the possibility of a new type. treatment for people with heart disease.
Another study, published in the journal EMBO, showed that removing senescent heart cells from mice also reduced the symptoms of aging, such as enlargement and thickening of the walls of the heart muscles.
Senolithic drugs are being tested for human safety and have attracted investments from several billionaires, including Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel.
Age expectancy has been steadily rising over the last century in Britain, but dropped slightly to 79 in men and 82 in women in 2020 due to the Covid pandemic, which experts expect to be a mistake. .