8-Year-Old Never Ages, Could Reveal 'Biological Immortality'

The little girl from Billings, Mont., is 8 years old, but weighs only 11 pounds. Gabby has a mysterious condition, shared by only a handful of others in the world, that slows her rate of aging.

A 29-year-old Florida man has the body of a 10-year-old, and a 31-year-old Brazilian woman is the size of a 2-year-old. Like Gabby, neither seems to grow older.

Unraveling what these three people may have in common is the subject of a TLC television special, "40-Year-Old Child: A New Case," which airs Monday, Aug. 19, at 10 p.m. ET. The show is a follow-up to Gabby's story, which aired last year.

QUOTE
Walker explains that physiological change, or what he calls "developmental inertia," is essential for human growth. Maturation occurs after reproduction.

"Without that process we never develop," he said. "When we develop, all the pieces of our body come together and change and are coordinated. Otherwise, there would be chaos."END QUOTE:

gma.yahoo.com...

I have never heard of this very rare condition..

Without even looking at the article or videos, i'm betting here and now, that these people will all share a rare mitochondrial mutation, specifically with regard to their telomerase length and it's function.

In 'normal cells' the telomerase shortens with each cell replication...causing the cell to 'age' (or wear out)..eventually, the telomerase 'tail' get's shorter and shorter and the cell no longer can make a copy of itself and dies by apoptosis (programmed cell death)

When this happens often enough, to enough cells...we get old and knackered.

These lucky folks seem to have cells and telomerase that for whatever reason don't seem to be reducing the length of the telomerase at the same rate as most other people's do.

reply to post by 727Sky


interesting...but as expected...a condition like this carries other disabilities....that prevent from enjoying this "eternal youth".

reply to post by MysterX

These lucky folks

I wouldn't call them lucky...

Originally posted by MarioOnTheFly
reply to post by MysterX

 

These lucky folks

I wouldn't call them lucky...

Lucky inasmuch as they might hold the key to greatly reduced aging and age related illnesses and diseases within their cells.

And lucky for the rest of us, if we can learn how to reprogramme our own cells and extend our youth significantly.

reply to post by MysterX

Lucky inasmuch as they might hold the key to greatly reduced aging and age related illnesses and diseases within their cells.

Lucky to be lab rats ?

Hardly lab rats. It's not like they were deliberately afflicted with a cell mutation in order to study them.

A simple blood sample would probably be enough to base the research upon. They probably get poked and prodded a lot more than that already.

ETA: If i had such a condition, i would consider it a service to Humanity if a DNA sample from me might go on to help science double or triple our 'active' phases of life, and postpone the old and worn out phases at the same time.

I would probably consider myself lucky to be in a position to help.

Although any samples taken would of course be strickly with the consent of the individuals concerned.

reply to post by 727Sky


I have heard of a condition that is the opposite of this Progaria,but this is a new one to me.

The first thing I thought while reading through the source was that they will be be looking for the gene that causes this problem, in hopes that they can tap this ability.Then I got to this:

In one of the girls Walker has studied, he found damage to one of the genes that causes developmental inertia, a finding that he said is significant. He also suspects the mutations are on the regulatory genes on the second female X chromosome. "If we could identify the gene and then at young adulthood we could silence the expression of developmental inertia, find an off-switch, when you do that, there is perfect homeostasis and you are biologically immortal."

That's progress, poor... kid right?
Medical science fascinates me, I'm just hoping scientists around the world don't go rushing this and trying to implement it without fully understanding what this genetic abnormality is.

S+F

This has my mind racing with the future possibilities this could bring and what genetics in general could offer us.

If being immortal means I have to be an infant like those in the video, forget it, you can keep it.
Besides, who wants to live forever????

Originally posted by HomerinNC
If being immortal means I have to be an infant like those in the video, forget it, you can keep it.
Besides, who wants to live forever????

Not sure about 'forever', but as long as i want to live sounds a LOT more attractive than becoming decrepit and worn out within only a handful of decades...but yeah, given the alternative (of death) yeah, why not live forever...if you have had enough, there's nothing stopping us ending our own lives.

Death would still happen...suicide, murder, accidents etc would still take a lot of lives, even from 'immortal' people.

And no, the idea is that you switch on (or off) the genes responsible for aging at a more appropriate time than in infancy...around 25 year would be an age i would pick for myself.

reply to post by RAY1990


Exactly I too had heard of the premature aging.."If we could identify the gene and then at young adulthood we could silence the expression of developmental inertia, find an off-switch, when you do that, there is perfect homeostasis and you are biologically immortal...

You have to wonder who would want to be immortal....in this economy.....only the super rich who would be the only ones who could afford it...unless we got trickle down longevity?? I would like to know what is after this life myself. If I close my eyes and am dead OK so be it...If there is something on the otherside that is fine with me; bring it on...We will all find out one day unless there is a break through and something trickles down our way....

reply to post by 727Sky


We won't find out if there nothing.

We won't have an active mind to process the discovery if there's nothing will we. I suppose one could argue the fact that death is inevitable...even if we could genetically extend our lifespans, complete with perfect health and youthful bodies for 1000 years of life, or 20,000 years of life, or only live for 15 years...at some point we will eventually die.

But think what could be discovered and accomplished, the planets that could be reached, the great works of science and art that could be achieved in a lifespan measured in centuries and not mere decades!

reply to post by 727Sky


I'm not sure if you have watched the film "The man from Earth" it does raise some good thoughts on what being immortal could be like. Basically it's about a man who has lived for 14,000 years, good low budget film.

For obvious reasons he had to be evasive his whole life, something that would not apply if we worked out how to be immortal. The other aspects though are applicable.

Things like watching loved ones pass who chose not to live forever, the emotional aspect of this could be devastating. Being heartbroken due to loss of loved ones is a hard thing to handle, imagine having to do it possibly hundreds of times.

That being said though, if I was given the choice to live youthful till I'm about 100 years old then having the ability to choose when to die?

I must say it would be a hard thing to refuse when I think about it. Of course though, it wouldn't even be an option for the common folk.

Originally posted by HomerinNC
If being immortal means I have to be an infant like those in the video, forget it, you can keep it.
Besides, who wants to live forever????

I can't really think of anything more horrifying than being here forever. Being stuck in the same body (which for these folks must be very inconvenient) with a front row seat to the descent into Idiocracy and Fascism? That would be awful lol

How interesting. I don't know if I would want to look like a ten year boy if I was sixty, all the adults would just blow you off and say go out and play. If these people were to get three hundred years old and look like a ten year old, nobody would listen to the experience they have learned.....They would say, aren't you supposed to be in school or something? The police would be constantly picking you up thinking your playing hookey.

reply to post by rickymouse


hahahaha I think the whole point is to turn off the aging process when you are....pick a number 30, 25, 21, 35?

Originally posted by RAY1990
reply to post by 727Sky

 

I'm not sure if you have watched the film "The man from Earth" it does raise some good thoughts on what being immortal could be like. Basically it's about a man who has lived for 14,000 years, good low budget film.

For obvious reasons he had to be evasive his whole life, something that would not apply if we worked out how to be immortal. The other aspects though are applicable.

Things like watching loved ones pass who chose not to live forever, the emotional aspect of this could be devastating. Being heartbroken due to loss of loved ones is a hard thing to handle, imagine having to do it possibly hundreds of times.

That being said though, if I was given the choice to live youthful till I'm about 100 years old then having the ability to choose when to die?

I must say it would be a hard thing to refuse when I think about it. Of course though, it wouldn't even be an option for the common folk.

I've seen it, was a bunch of people in the one room talking lol

ETA: here's the trailer

reply to post by Malynn


Oh god, same here, I'd go batcrap crazy lol

Watching that video, I don't see how this is a good thing for anyone.. it's debilitating..

Also, immortaility sounds great but it would be horrible unless we can get off this planet .. Over population is already an issue.. death is a very important thing for our survival as a species.. Until we reach the capability to leave and colonize other planets we should fear the concept of immortality..

reply to post by 727Sky


Very interesting. Thanks for posting. I'm convinced that our lifespan is controlled by our genes. It's like computer code, with a member level variable m_nMaxLifeSpan = 128. Or 2^7. The early people in the Bible had theirs set to 1024 or 2^10.

Immortality will be achievable through science.