Drexler on Autophagy

A post on autophagy at Metamodern: "I’d like to say a few words about one of the hottest and, in my view, most important areas in biomedicine: autophagy, a process crucial to health, disease, and aging. Autophagy research is expanding rapidly. In autophagy ('self eating'), cells engulf and digest their own macromolecules and organelles. Autophagy serves two functions: providing critical nutrients in times of scarcity, and recycling damaged cellular structures. ... It seems that lab animals and human beings fed ad-libitum do too little autophagic recycling. The resulting accumulation of damaged machinery causes a wide range of functional deficits, and accumulation of damaged mitochondria, in particular, increases the production of reactive oxygen species, accelerating further damage. In a range of organisms, dietary restriction both induces autophagy and results in wide-ranging health benefits, including the extension of healthy lifespans. Blocking autophagy blocks the most important of these effects. Rapamycin induces autophagy and extends lifespan, as does sirtuin-1. Autophagy again appears to be central to these effects. A recent review article examines genetic interventions that indicate 'tight connections between autophagy, health span and aging'."

Link: http://metamodern.com/2010/07/24/autophagy-why-you-should-eat-yourself/

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