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This community is here to share the passion of science with anyone and everyone. We have a special interest in longevity science, but all STEM fields are appreciated. This is a place to share and discuss these topics in a respectful and open minded manner.

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What's with the name?

Like Mariella, we should all aim to mainline science at least five times a day.

Who are we? We are a normie that has a lot of freetime and a wicked smaaht postdoc.

What do we want? To share info from the scientific world with an emphasis in longevity science.

What's longevity science? This is the arm of science that looks into ways to promote a healthy and extended lifespan.

Wait, immortality? Nah. While that would be dope, immortality isn't necessarily the end goal. In terms of total lifespan we are a relatively long lived species, however, most people spend their older years living with debilitating age related conditions and diseases. Let's say Person A lives to be 96 years of age, but they spent twenty of those years bedridden. Whereas Person B lived to be 88 and was perfectly healthy up to the last minute before dying from a stroke. I'd argue that Person B had a healthier lifespan. Obviously, this is a very nuanced concept to breeze through, but the goal of this field is to find ways to extend our ability to live healthy lives without age related declines. Eventually the hope is for total lifespan to also increase, but for now living longer in good health is the real marker of longevity.

Now what? Have a fun topic you wanna discuss or learn more about? Make a post! Afraid you don't know enough to post or ask questions? Pffft! Ask away! Above all, you do you. And be kind.

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[DISCUSSION] Gene therapy as a vaccine against aging? (mander.xyz)

submitted 2 months ago* (last edited 1 month ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Let’s continue our dive into gene therapy with one of my favorite papers. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6876218/

In this study, researchers delivered three longevity-associated genes (FGF21, αKlotho, and sTGFβR2) to mice using a gene therapy cocktail. These genes target metabolism, heart function, and kidney health—three areas that typically decline with age. Here’s why this is a big deal:

Obesity & Diabetes? Reversed. Mice fed a high-fat diet lost weight and saw their diabetes symptoms disappear, just by tweaking how their cells handled energy.

Heart Failure? Improved. The therapy improved heart function by 58%, meaning it could help tackle the leading cause of death worldwide.

Kidney Disease? Protected. Mice treated with this gene therapy avoided the typical kidney damage seen with age-related conditions.

What’s most exciting is that a single gene therapy cocktail—combining just two of the three genes—was able to treat all of these diseases simultaneously. Imagine being able to tackle multiple age-related health issues with just one treatment!

This approach could be a game-changer in how we think about aging and disease. Instead of targeting one condition at a time, we might be able to treat aging itself by addressing the root causes of multiple diseases.

What do you think—are we on the verge of a breakthrough in how we fight age-related diseases?

See this similar paper here targeting TERT and follistatin: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9171804/

Do these papers pass our threshold of believability? Are we concerned that one of these papers had a few post publication amendments? I may circle back to poke holes in them (if I can find any) at a later time. Feel free to beat me to it!

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

Thank you! Hmmm I am excited about the possibility for these therapies, especially in the scope of modular adjustments turning genes on and off without more permanent/unwanted changes. Time will tell.

Back to your initial post. I am intrigued by the TERT and follistatin, would love to see this study replicated. The other paper you mentioned with the multi use cocktail was also compelling, but I thought it was odd they didn't include a longevity specific arm. I suppose that wasn't the scope of their intended study, seems like pretty low hanging fruit though. I don't wanna get too cynical, but I wonder if they DID try a longevity side and things didn't work out too well? Either way, that should definitely be a follow up study.