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[Ether_Snake]

Inside Novartis’s push to produce the first legitimate anti-aging drug

Very long article, but very interesting. Some of it sounds like it's straight from a dumb movie.

One afternoon in the early 1980s, Suren Sehgal brought a strange package home from work and stashed it in his family’s freezer. Wedged beside the ice cream, it was wrapped in heavy plastic and marked, “DON’T EAT!” Inside were several small glass vials containing a white paste—all that remained of a rare bacterium that today is the foundation of the most promising anti-aging drug in decades. Sehgal had been studying it since 1972, when he’d first isolated it in a soil sample at Ayerst Laboratories, a pharmaceutical company in Montreal.

A Canadian medical expedition had collected the soil from beneath one of the mysterious stone heads on Easter Island, a speck in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. In the dirt, Sehgal had discovered Streptomyces hygroscopicus, a bacterium that secreted a potent antifungal compound. This intrigued him; he thought perhaps it could be made into a cream for athlete’s foot or other fungal conditions. He purified the stuff and named it rapamycin, after Easter Island’s native name, Rapa Nui.

When Wyeth, the global health-care company based in Pennsylvania, bought Ayerst in 1987, Sehgal persuaded his bosses to let him resume his work on the rare bacterium. Sehgal found that, besides its antifungal properties, rapamycin also suppressed the immune system. It tamps down the body’s natural reaction to a new kidney or other organ. Eventually, in 1999, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved rapamycin as a drug for transplant patients.

In the years since, rapamycin has been adapted for numerous uses. Like penicillin, it’s a biological agent, so it can’t be patented, although derivatives of it can. It’s now used routinely as a coating on cardiac stents to prevent scarring and blocking. Derivatives of rapamycin have been approved for use against certain kidney, lung, and breast cancers. That may be just the beginning. Over the past decade, it’s shown promise as a drug that not only can extend life by delaying the onset of aging-related diseases such as cancer, heart disease, and Alzheimer’s disease, but also postpone the effects of normal aging. With an eye toward changing the way millions grow older, Novartis, the $260 billion Swiss pharmaceutical giant, has begun taking the first steps to position a version of rapamycin as the first true anti-aging drug.

“People have shown that rapamycin extends life span again and again and again,” says Matt Kaeberlein, a scientist at the University of Washington and a leading researcher in the biology of aging. So far it’s demonstrated it can lengthen the lives of mice, not men, but what’s particularly exciting is how it did so, Kaeberlein says. The drug appears to delay “age-related decline in multiple different organ systems, which is something we would expect if we were fundamentally slowing the aging process.”

In any case, one imagines Sehgal would be proud. After he was diagnosed with cancer in 1998, his son Ajai says, Sehgal began taking rapamycin, too—despite the drug not having been approved for anything yet. He had a hunch that it might help slow the spread of his cancer, which had metastasized to his liver and other organs. His doctors gave him two years to live, but he survived for much longer, as the tumors appeared to go dormant. The only side effect he suffered from was canker sores, a relatively small price to pay.

But in 2003, after five years, Sehgal, age 70, decided to stop taking the drug. Otherwise, he told his wife, he’d never know whether it was really holding back his cancer. The tumors came back quickly, and he died within months, says Ajai. “On his deathbed, he said to me, ‘The stupidest thing I’ve ever done is stop taking the drug.’ ”

More at the article.

The catch is: it suppresses your immunity system. So you kind of stop aging, but you can't heal so anything can kill you... But some research is ongoing that could avoid this little problem.

Told you this story it straight out of a bad movie but it's real.

 

[Kevyt]

Immortality will be within reach during our generation.

 

[BreezyLimbo]

Great Ill take it. I never get sick so Ill be good.

 

[Face it Tiger..]

we will live till 150 in our anti-bacterial plastic bubbles

 

[ValkyrUser]

Good! I'm gonna need it if I ever plan to finish up my backlog of games/movies/shows.

 

[KissVibes]

This will be the downfall of humanity.

 

[Dalek]

With my luck it won't be available until I'm in my 80's.

 

[Foffy]

We should make a human oath to fix the planet before we even consider applying this to humanity. Applying this to a species gone awry will only cause more chaos.

 

[Ether_Snake]

We should make a human oath to fix the planet before we even consider applying this to humanity. Applying this to a species gone awry will only cause more chaos.

Wrong, the longer we live the less we reproduce.

 

[highrider]

Great, more people.

 

[Foffy]

Wrong, the longer we live the less we reproduce.

Population isn't any problem I was referring to. It's how we live. Guaranteeing an infinite life without a change in lifestyle will only pillage this earth faster.

 

[wingwah]

Wrong, the longer we live the less we reproduce.

That's not necessarily true.

 

[BreezyLimbo]

That's not necessarily true.

It really isn't @_@ I know for sure if I lived to 150 or more I'd have like 10-20 children out of duty.

 

[DeaviL]

Live forever, or die trying

 

[perfectchaos007]

If everyone gets immortality, how long until having babies becomes illegal? Eventually the Earth will be filled with old farts and no youth. I believe our society needs death, but hopefully sometime soon we'll be able to prevent premature death via illnesses like cancer and disease. Hopefully we will all die of natural causes.

 

[Hollycat]

I need it I need it I need it!

 

[titiklabingapat]

Population isn't any problem I was referring to. It's how we live. Guaranteeing an infinite life without a change in lifestyle will only pillage this earth faster.

Or it's an incentive to preserve it because you can no longer pass the buck to the next generation.

 

[Rentahamster]

This will be the downfall of humanity.

No it won't.

That's not necessarily true.

Yes it is.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080215210722.htm

http://www.academia.edu/289307/Exam...ucational_Attainment_A_Cross-Country_Analysis

It really isn't @_@ I know for sure if I lived to 150 or more I'd have like 10-20 children out of duty.

You might (I doubt it), but if you did, you'd be an outlier.

 

[shira]

Immortality will be within reach during our generation.

I will wash myself with a rag on a stick - for eterntity

 

[Foffy]

Or it's an incentive to preserve it because you can no longer pass the buck to the next generation.

One would hope..

 

[BreezyLimbo]

You might (I doubt it), but if you did, you'd be an outlier.

I will make sure that I fuck myself out of the studies you linked if I had anti-aging.

 

[wenis]

The cycle of death will continue. I'm not worried. People will stay young and stupid long enough to do stupid shit to get killed. Nature will correct this.

 

[Noobcraft]

Clickbait thread title. Basically rapamycin causes cells to reproduce less frequently, meaning less chance for genetic mutation during mitosis, and thus increases the average longevity of life for a group of individuals. As noted in the article, the same function can be obtained with periodic fasting, or even with some diabeties medications.

This isn't anywhere close to immortality, this is the equivalent of adding an aerokit to a car to gain a few mpg.

 

[chubigans]

That was a great read, thanks for posting!

 

[Rentahamster]

I will make sure that I fuck myself out of the studies you linked if I had anti-aging.

Congratsonthe(future)sex.gif

 

[devilhawk]

Rapamycin and its similar drugs, called rapalogs, have been studied for years and years. Rapamycin targets the mTOR proteins in the body. MTOR is part of the PI3 kinase pathway and is altered in a whole bunch of cancers. So mTOR inhibitors like rapamycin have been used as chemotherapy for a long time. Unfortunately, like so many aberrant pathways in cancer the tumors come back by overcoming the mTOR inhibition.

The anti-aging field is just weird. Things that substantially increase aging in worms sometimes works in mice. Sometimes they even work in rhesus macaque. They rarely work in primates. They have never worked in humans.

Rapamycin may be different. It may be special. We have some understanding of how it regulates the insulin, AKT, and PI3K pathways. We have less understanding of how the immune system is involved. Might be that one of the rapalogs can affect the aging without the immune system side effects.

 

[dork]

This will be the downfall of humanity.

Agreed. It's a horrible idea

 

[andthebeatgoeson]

This will be the downfall of humanity.

Canker sores do suck.

 

[SL128]

A proverbial fountain of youth on Easter Island? They're still alive!

 

[Rushersauce]

Just what we need, the same mentality and 1% but for eternity

 

[99hertz]

I don't know what to think. Maybe slowly withering away due to Alzheimer's is good.

 

[Ether_Snake]

You guys are depressing.

 

[JaseC]

Great Ill take it. I never get sick so Ill be good.

BreezyLimbo
Famous last words
(Today, 11:40 AM)

 

[xbhaskarx]

Great, more people.

Give people a choice between immortality and breeding.

 

[sssstententen]

I'd give it a try. I want to live forever. So much in life I'll never get to experience/miss out on. I want to keep on exisiting, not just end.

Bring it on science.

 

[efyu_lemonardo]

canker sores for everybody means less kissing, less blowjobs, less tasty food... is that really the life we want??

 

[Onemic]

Immortality will be within reach during our generation.

nope

 

[devilhawk]

As someone who has to take shitty chemo and other drugs to suppress her immune system so RA doesn't slowly devour me, STRAIGHT INTO MY VEINS BABY.

Canker sores? Fuck, I'd give anything for that to me my only side effect right now. Also the side effect of like, not aging is awesome too.

A quick look says maybe? http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=mtor+rheumatoid+arthritis

 

[Rentahamster]

As someone who has to take shitty chemo and other drugs to suppress her immune system so RA doesn't slowly devour me, STRAIGHT INTO MY VEINS BABY.

Canker sores? Fuck, I'd give anything for that to me my only side effect right now. Also the side effect of like, not aging is awesome too.

Looks like there's been some research done into that already.

https://www.google.com/search?q=rhe...umatoid+arthritis+rapamycin&safe=off&start=30

edit: beaten

 

[devilhawk]

I'm seeing the words 'complete remission' in some of the articles, and that would be incredible. So promising, even though I am not hopeful in that it will likely take ages to get approved as a treatment for RA, and even then would likely somehow cost a ton of money even though you can't patent it.

It's FDA approved. You just have to convince a doctor to prescribe it off label. Not saying that's likely though.

 

[LaserBuddha]

I think people are ignoring the most ominous part:

But in 2003, after five years, Sehgal, age 70, decided to stop taking the drug. Otherwise, he told his wife, he’d never know whether it was really holding back his cancer. The tumors came back quickly, and he died within months, says Ajai. “On his deathbed, he said to me, ‘The stupidest thing I’ve ever done is stop taking the drug.’ ”

The scenario then is that everyone gets on this drug, and we all reach a point where stopping will literally kill many of us in a short period of time. And how can you know for sure it wont until you stop?

Now there could be a drug that essentially is required to live, and its in the hands of Novartis.

 

[marimorimo]

delete pls.

 

[marimorimo]

At my job, I'm in contact with multiple leading scientists in the study of aging and rapamycin is only a small piece of the puzzle. There are many other methods or substances that have been proved to extend longevity, at least in animal studies.

RESVERATROL - the stuff found in red wine. Resveratrol is a powerful anti-oxidant.

CALORIE RESTRICTION - eating less has been proven to extend lifespan.

SIRTUINS - these regulate lifespan at the genetic level.

 

[takriel]

As someone who has to take shitty chemo and other drugs to suppress her immune system so RA doesn't slowly devour me, STRAIGHT INTO MY VEINS BABY.

Canker sores? Fuck, I'd give anything for that to me my only side effect right now. Also the side effect of like, not aging is awesome too.

What's RA, if you don't mind me asking?

Edit: Ah I see. I should read the whole thread before replying...