A Popular Science Article on the Comparative Study of Aging in Short-Lived and Long-Lived Species
Looking for longevity-assurance mechanisms in long-lived animals is a growth concern these days, though it is still largely an aspect of the slow road in longevity science. It is possible that researchers will make discoveries that will help the development of means to repair specific forms of cellular and molecular damage that cause aging in humans, but the focus is usually on determining ways to alter the operation of human metabolism so as to gently slow down aging. Look at the community who investigate the biochemistry of calorie restriction so as to develop drugs to mimic its beneficial effects on health and longevity, for example.
Slowing aging safely by creating a new operating state for our cellular biology is a very challenging and expensive endeavor, and one which will yield little benefit for people who are already old. In comparison keeping the metabolism we have while working to periodically remove the damage that degrades its operation sounds like a much better plan, and one that will help the old by actually rejuvenating them.
Here is a popular science piece that looks at the work of one of the researchers involved in comparative studies of the genetics of aging in varied animal species:
Accumulating damage in cells is commonly thought to result in aging, but Gladyshev doesn't think even that assumption has been carefully tested. He pointed to the trash can in his fourth-floor office and noted that it could fill up with garbage, but that would not mean that his ability to do work would change.So Gladyshev came up with a new way to probe aging. Instead of looking for clues by studying longer- and shorter-lived individuals of a particular species, why not look at the diversity of an entire class of organisms? Evolution, he notes, has been better at tweaking the life spans of organisms than any laboratory researchers have been: among mammals, there can be a gigantic variation in life span between different species. What, he wonders, are the genetic differences that mean an elephant can live for 70 years, a squirrel can reach its 20th birthday, but a shrew may expire after just one?
Gladyshev will collect samples from 50 mammals whose natural lives vary, from the longest- to the shortest-lived. Recently, for example, he enlisted a team of Russian scientists to gather samples from the Brandt's bat, a five-gram mammal that has been documented to live 41 years. Gladyshev and the Russian researchers described the bat's genome, and compared it with other mammals. They identified genetic alterations in genes that may be involved in lifespan, and Gladyshev hopes to examine those genes in greater detail to see whether they play a role in the tiny creature's remarkable longevity.
By eventually comparing gene activity in many mammals, he hopes to identify genes and control mechanisms that might control aging - and provide potent targets for researchers hoping to develop therapies that could extend life or combat diseases of aging.