If we want to increase longevity and reverse aging, we need to get serious. Forget myth. There is no fountain of youth. And we need to move beyond practical advice. Healthy habits will accomplish only so much. No, if we want to make real progress, we need to act on what we’ve been learning about cell biology.
This idea isn’t all that new. Almost 10 years ago, a review in the Molecular Biology of the Cell(2015; 26: 4524–4531) noted that cell biology research has been finding all sorts of processes behind aging: “[Cellular] health in aging … is controlled at various points in the cell, starting in the nucleus through chromosome structure/organization, transcriptional regulation, and nuclear export/import, ranging outward to protein translation and quality control, autophagic recycling of organelles, maintenance of cytoskeletal structure, and finally maintenance of the extracellular matrix and extracellular signaling. Each regulatory system receives information from every other system, resulting in an intricate interplay of regulation controlling the aging of the cell.”
In this article, we will be looking at four new therapeutic approaches. The first is a gene expression rheostat that involves an engineered inducible adeno-associated virus type 2 (AAV2) vector that contains three specific transcription factors and is capable of up- or downregulating the expression of targeted genes. The second is based on an atlas of the body’s electrome, a map of nonneural communications for modulating ion channels as conduits for bioelectric signaling. The third is a synaptic regenerative approach based on small-molecule drugs. And, finally, the fourth is a new senolytic approach, that is, an approach for modulating or reversing cellular senescence.
