By Leonardo Castaneda, Staff Columnist
We finally did it. Forget about Botox or finding the fountain of youth, Harvard researchers have finally developed a youth potion — sort of.
It won’t grant you eternal youth or make you look 18 again, but this new genetic procedure could revolutionize the way we age. This groundbreaking treatment works through telomeres, one of the most fundamental elements of genetics. Telomeres are the repeating patterns of genetic code at the tail ends of DNA.
During normal cell growth DNA copies itself, cutting off a few end sequences in the process. In this way, telomeres act as buffers by preventing mutations and untangling new DNA strands.
As we age, we slowly wear down these buffers. Eventually, when there’s nothing left, cells are unable to reproduce and they start deteriorating, marking the first stages of aging. Harvard researchers have activated an enzyme called telomerase, which adds telomeres to the end of old DNA sequences. The results of this experiment were astounding: Old cells were given a new lease on life and started reproducing once again.
This revitalized brain growth, restored fertility and extended the life expectancy of aged and sickly mice. If this medical procedure works with small mammals, there is no doubt scientists could eventually perfect it for human use. At this point, you’re probably wondering, ‘’when can I sign up?” Just imagine how awesome early bird senior breakfasts will be when we’re 65 years old and still look 22.
Yet, not everyone agrees this is a positive achievement. Those dissenting in the scientific community argue telomere regeneration could create worse problems than simply getting old, pointing out that telomeres naturally wear down to prevent cancerous cell growth. Cheating the system could mean we’d basically be injecting ourselves with cells that can grow more quickly into tumors. Unfortunately, this is a dangerous possibility, and without extensive long-term testing, we won’t know precisely how the regeneration of telomeres can be controlled.
However, if we can activate telomerase, we should be able to turn it back off, preventing cells from reproducing endlessly. Does this mean adding telomeres to our cells could halt the aging process? The short answer is, probably not. During tests, the procedure did not extend the average life expectancy of healthy mice.
Even without the slow elimination of telomeres, there would still be a plethora of diseases and ailments waiting to kill us as we get older. The reality is, this treatment is no “Tuck Everlasting.” It won’t get rid of your wrinkles either, so don’t throw out your skin care creams just yet.
What it could do is produce healthier senior citizens, allowing us to forget about Alzheimer’s disease for good. But because this won’t allow people to live longer than they do now, it probably won’t increase the burden on the planet’s resources either. Widespread use is still decades away, but knowing scientists are working on it gives our generation hope for the most painless midlife crisis yet. Now, if only they’d get started on that love potion.
—Leonardo Castaneda is a business administration freshman.
—The views expressed in this column do not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Daily Aztec.
