We all strive to live longer, healthier lives by various
means. Some accomplish this through diet and exercise while others have to rely
on the marvels of modern medicine to increase their lifespan. However,
scientists have recently experienced a breakthrough on a genetic level which
can possibly increase the lifespan of humans in general. .
The researchers at national institutes of health published a research in the journal Cell Reports regarding the mTOR gene. This gene is found to be a major regulator in the aging process found in animals as well as humans. Scientists conducted an experiment where they used two groups of mice and regulated the amount of mTOR gene in each group. One group of mice had 25% of normal mTOR protein while the second group was the control group. The result of this experiment was fascinating. Scientists found that the mice with the suppressed mTOR gene expression had a 20% increase in their lifespan which amounts to approximately 15 years of human lifespan.
The researchers at national institutes of health published a research in the journal Cell Reports regarding the mTOR gene. This gene is found to be a major regulator in the aging process found in animals as well as humans. Scientists conducted an experiment where they used two groups of mice and regulated the amount of mTOR gene in each group. One group of mice had 25% of normal mTOR protein while the second group was the control group. The result of this experiment was fascinating. Scientists found that the mice with the suppressed mTOR gene expression had a 20% increase in their lifespan which amounts to approximately 15 years of human lifespan.
While researching mTOR I found
that it is an intracellular signaling pathway important in apoptosis. It is
important in cancer research and is activated by AKT which is then activated by
PI3K
However, with new breakthroughs
and results always leads to more questions. One of the questions asked is will
the results of the drug trial on mice have the same outcome when applied to
humans because humans are vastly more complex. Furthermore, every drug on the
market has a side effect which is potentially deadly. For example, pain
medications generally cause nausea and blood thinners such as Coumadin or Warfarin
can cause spontaneous brain hemorrhage.
Working with animals for research purposes is a very touchy subject to most. There are pro and cons to working with animals, but you have to think would you want it to be tested on humans first? or take risk with mice? With that put aside, would this go into drug trial or is this still too new to know if there will be a drug trial? When you were researching mTOR, did it say if this would be a detector for cancer?
ReplyDeleteYes of course there are pros and cons to working with animals but at the same time you see cancer research being done on mice on a daily bases. I known it might seem immoral to think this way, but I would rather the drugs be tested on animals before they are even thought to be tested on humans. From what I understand this is still a fairly new find and is still in the research stage. I didn't find any cancer related topics with mTOR.
DeleteThis sounds like a similar finding with studies in mice from a few years ago. Apparently calorie restriction caused mice to live longer, but when studied in primates, the results were not as conclusive. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444772804577619394017185860.html
ReplyDeleteMany times animal model does not predict the outcome in humans.
yes, restricting calorie intake will definitely not do the job for us and instead will just cause problems in nutrition.
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