期刊
EXPERIMENTAL GERONTOLOGY
卷 58, 期 -, 页码 14-18出版社
PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.exger.2014.07.003
关键词
Aging; Biogerontology; Disease; Prevention; Translation
资金
- Wellcome Trust [098565/Z/12/Z, 098565] Funding Source: Medline
Key objectives of biogerontology are to understand the biology of aging and to translate scientific insight into interventions that improve late-life health - or anti-aging treatments. In this context, when considering the problem of how to effect translational research, it is useful to have a clear, consensus view on what exactly constitutes an anti-aging treatment. This essay critically assesses the understanding of this concept common among biogerontologists, and proposes a new definition. A current conception of anti-aging treatment imagines a primary cause of aging that is causally upstream of, and the cause of, all age-related pathology. Intervening in this aging process thus protects against the totality of age-related diseases. However, this underlying aging process remains an abstraction. By contrast, what is demonstrable is that interventions in model organisms can improve late-life health and extend lifespan. Furthermore, a safe deduction is that treatments that extend lifespan do so by reducing age-related pathology, both florid and subtle. What is currently identifiable about aging (i.e. senescence) is that it is a very complex disease syndrome, likely involving a number of biological mechanisms. Treatments that substantially extend lifespan must suppress multiple pathologies that otherwise limit lifespan, but whether they suppress the entire aging process remains undemonstrated. A more pragmatic and realistic definition of anti-aging treatment is any preventative approach to reduce late-life pathology, based on the understanding that senescence is a disease syndrome. This definition would encompass preventative approaches aimed at both broad and narrow spectra of age-related pathologies. Its adoption would facilitate translation, since it would shift the emphasis to medical practice, particularly the introduction of preventative approaches. Narrow spectrum anti-aging treatments (e. g. the cardiovascular polypill) could establish a practice that eventually extends to broader spectrum anti-aging treatments (e. g. dietary restriction mimetics). (C) 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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