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Biological 'Fountain Of Youth' Found In New World Bat Caves

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posted on Jul, 1 2009 @ 09:44 PM
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Biological 'Fountain Of Youth' Found In New World Bat Caves


Scientists from Texas are batty over a new discovery which could lead to the single most important medical breakthrough in human history—significantly longer lifespans. The discovery, featured on the cover of the July 2009 print issue of The FASEB Journal, shows that proper protein folding over time in long-lived bats explains why they live significantly longer than other mammals of comparable size, such as mice.

"Ultimately we are trying to discover what underlying mechanisms allow for some animal species to live a very long time with the hope that we might be able to develop therapies that allow people to age more slowly," said Asish Chaudhuri, Professor of Biochemistry, VA Medical Center, San Antonio, Texas and the senior researcher involved in the work.

Asish and colleagues made their discovery by extracting proteins from the livers of two long-lived bat species (Tadarida brasiliensis and Myotis velifer) and young adult mice and exposed them to chemicals known to cause protein misfolding. After examining the proteins, the scientists found that the bat proteins exhibited less damage than those of the mice, indicating that bats have a mechanism for maintaining proper structure under extreme stress.


Protein Misfolding


At school it all sounded so simple — transcription turns DNA into RNA, and translation of RNA gives you protein. But the often forgotten third step in this process, the folding of the translated linear strand of amino acids into a fully functional three-dimensional protein, is one of the most complex challenges facing the cellular protein factory.

Although it has long been known that the amino-acid sequence in some way dictates the biologically active conformation of a protein, the experimental tools required to probe the intermediate states along the folding pathway have only begun to become available in the past decade or so. These tools are revealing a tightly regulated assembly line, where multiple factors guide nascent proteins to select the correct shape from an almost infinite array of possibilities.

Becoming apparent are the stringent quality-control systems that come into play if the folding process fails, ensuring that the misfolded products are targeted for degradation before they cause harm. Those that escape this cellular surveillance are prone to forming aggregates that can damage or kill cells through mechanisms that are just beginning to be understood.

A huge variety of previously unrelated diseases, such as prion diseases, diabetes and cancer, share the pathological feature of aggregated misfolded protein deposits. This suggests the exciting possibility that these 'protein-misfolding diseases' are linked by common principles, and may therefore present common targets for therapeutic intervention.

The articles in this Insight give an interdisciplinary overview of the field of protein-folding research, treading a path from protein chemistry through cell biology to misfolding diseases and the potential for therapeutic development.


By Adam Smith Editor, Nature Reviews Drug Discovery.


Encyclopedia Britanica: Bat


Adult bats, on the other hand, have low mortality. Predation is rarely serious, especially for cave-dwelling species. Disease, parasitic infestation, starvation, and accidents apparently take small tolls. There are records of several big brown (Eptesicus fuscus), little brown (Myotis lucifugus), and greater horseshoe bats (Rhinolophus ferrumequinum) that have lived more than 20 years, and a few have lived more than 30. Probably many bats in temperate climates live more than 10 years. Longevity has not been established for most tropical species, but a few are known to live for more than 10 years.


Encyclopedia Britanica: Mouse


Life span can be as long as three years in laboratory mice but is considerably shorter among free-living mice.



Looking at the relative life spans of these two they may be onto something.

Of course it may also have to do with the fact , mice cannot fly away from predators and mouse traps! But who knows, good luck to them!



posted on Jul, 1 2009 @ 09:55 PM
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what about turtles?

they live for yonks!! and sharks dont need a dentist..

lol great post!! all the better for man


on a side note. man can do a lot more if he took the time to study nature and stop being up his own arse..



S+F



posted on Jul, 1 2009 @ 10:34 PM
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If they ever find this RNA in these bats and see what it might do to Humans. Just who in the world would be able to get it so that they can live longer. Surely not the average people. Imagine if everyone got hold of this medicine what this world would be like in 100 years??. You wouldn't be able to walk outside without bumping into someone. Sorry but it would be given to only a few individuals so that they can rule over everyone else.



posted on Jul, 1 2009 @ 10:40 PM
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reply to post by Brothers
 


but that is what happens now?

sorry did not mean to scare you


dont ask.. i aint saying



posted on Jul, 1 2009 @ 11:19 PM
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Heh, this reminds me of a debate I had with someone once. They were talking about being immortal and stopping all aging. I asked them, if we had the ability to stop all aging, would they support the forced sterilization of people who elected to never age? They would not support it. They were stuck on the seperate issues, but could not correlate the connection between living forever and breeding.

So I wonder, if we had two classes of people, breeders and immortals, which would you choose to be?



posted on Jul, 1 2009 @ 11:53 PM
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reply to post by rogerstigers
 


thats not fair you just freaked my brain out i need a smoke



posted on Jul, 1 2009 @ 11:55 PM
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reply to post by rogerstigers
 


Immortal in a infinite universe

say what???

ok need more smokes



posted on Jul, 1 2009 @ 11:58 PM
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Wouldn't be a problem for an immortal society, not if its anything like we are today. People will still kill each other.

And with people not dying, there would be enough labor and manpower to build ships to colonize other planets, and then kill each other there.



posted on Jul, 2 2009 @ 12:00 AM
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Or you can just severely calorie restrict eliminating the whole process like me...

They said I HAD Diabetes lol...

Just Sayin



posted on Jul, 2 2009 @ 12:02 AM
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reply to post by mopusvindictus
 


Haha, you too huh? I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. I was too scared to take my insulin shots so i started controlling my caloric and sugar intake, and started eating vegetarian. Couple months ago they told me my pancreas works again! yay!



posted on Jul, 2 2009 @ 12:44 AM
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Breeders and immortals.. hmm, If I had a chocie between the two.. I'd definitely be an immortal. No need to spread my gene when I'm going to be here for a very long time.



posted on Jul, 2 2009 @ 01:33 AM
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reply to post by symmetricAvenger
 
Agreed - great post.

But...


lol great post!! all the better for man


I dunno about that.

Longer life spans will mean selective breeding and the elite living, the meek, not.




posted on Jul, 2 2009 @ 02:34 AM
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Haha EASY! Immortal with vasectomy, does not mean you could not try to breed



posted on Jul, 2 2009 @ 04:31 AM
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Originally posted by Brothers
If they ever find this RNA in these bats and see what it might do to Humans. Just who in the world would be able to get it so that they can live longer. Surely not the average people. Imagine if everyone got hold of this medicine what this world would be like in 100 years??. You wouldn't be able to walk outside without bumping into someone. Sorry but it would be given to only a few individuals so that they can rule over everyone else.


I agree, IF, and it's a big IF, this goes the distance, it will be swallowed up by the elite, haha, imagine, you could have President Obama and David Rockefeller ruling you for 60 years!

Noooooooo!

[edit on 2-7-2009 by kiwifoot]



posted on Jul, 2 2009 @ 04:39 AM
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^^^^^
Screw that. lmao



posted on Jul, 2 2009 @ 07:55 AM
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why do you guys want to take away something as beautiful as death?! This idea of humans and immortality is a complete oxymoron and should never be accomplished (if your referring to the ability to stay in "this" reality "forever")



posted on Jul, 2 2009 @ 07:58 AM
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reply to post by rogerstigers
 


i would play the immortal gig for as long as i could stand it.
Probably wouldn't be that long this world get's boring after 50+ years in a way lol

then i would start breeding and have forced murder put upon me in a bar..while having 6 drunk chick's on me lol..maybe a heart attack lol



posted on Jul, 2 2009 @ 08:26 AM
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reply to post by prplurkl
 





why do you guys want to take away something as beautiful as death?!


Okay let me guess, you're 20 something or 30 something and the grim reaper seems like he isn't about ready to pay you a visit for quite sometime.

Me, I'm on a first name basis and wouldn't mind telling the bony guy to get lost for another 80-100 years

When I was in nursing out of about a hundred deaths I witnessed, only one was a qentle and quiet letting go and she was 100 years and 3 days old.

Everyone else bar none struggled for that last breath.

Death is not "beautiful" nor does it usually come easily.

While I don't fear death itself, it's the dying part that looks like it's not going to be a fun experience.



[edit on 2-7-2009 by ofhumandescent]



posted on Jul, 2 2009 @ 08:56 AM
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the extended life/overpopulation argument doesn't really stack up to practice. in the parts of the world where life expectancy is extended birthrates tend to go down. this is a combination of expediency, prosperity and social pressure.

most people will stop at one or two children over a life span and accidental death/suicide/boredom/murder and war will probably even out the balance. then you can consider the fact that the change in perspectives people would face would make our priorities change.

if you spend 1/100th of your life raising children you need to occupy the rest of it with doing something worthwhile in the long term. spending 20 years in college learning everything you can about something just for the sake of curiosity suddenly seems trivial, 100 years research seems a short time-frame for a project to develop a new energy source. spending 1000 building a space habitat seems a good investment.

the idea that you could limit this technology to any kind of elite doesn't really hold water either, the search for immortality, in a lot of ways, seems to be mans driving force. people would risk anything, including death, to attain it. to stop them getting and distributing the information seems a tall order.



posted on Jul, 2 2009 @ 09:25 AM
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This target is dead on. We are already investigating to a successful degree nanotechnologies that can create/fold proteins. We are also just getting to the computation necessary for this to be completely understood, which is one of th most important aspects of technology. Mother Nature does a really good job with correcting her mistakes but they do slip by... this is really a fountain of youth in a sense that we are beginning to understand along with a ton of other just as important discoveries.

Autonomous DNA nanobot "walker"




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