Who Wants to Live Forever?

There is a growing force out there, often called the longevity movement. And what advocates of the movement say will either blow your mind or cause a furrowed brow if you focus only on the YouTube videos and titles of the TEDx Talks and conferences.

Rejuvenation biotechnology.

Anti-aging medicine.

Defeating aging.

How to cure aging.

And then there is scientist Aubrey de Grey’s bold statement that someone alive today could live to 1,000.

But delve deeper and you’ll realize that while there is a certain evangelical fervour to it all, it’s not hype.

The reality is that humans are living longer. In 2016, Statistics Canada reported that for the first time in census history, there were more seniors than children living in Canada. In 1900, average life expectancy in Canada was 50. Today, it’s 83 for women and 79 for men. And those averages are increasing.

Longevity zealots are saying this: given the potential of the huge advances that will be made possible by artificial intelligence, stem cells and biotechnology, there is a strong likelihood humans could live to ages that reach far past the progression seen so far.

Need an example?
Meet Michael Garton.

The research he is conducting induces open-mouthed awe. So does his personal story.

Garton, 37, was recently appointed assistant professor in U of T’s Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering. A native of Nottingham, UK, he was, in his 20s, an accomplished mountain climber. Then, in 2006, while attempting the first solo climb of Europe’s tallest rock face, the Troll Wall in Norway, he fell and broke his neck. His injuries left him permanently paralyzed below the neck and waist.

But his brain and cognitive abilities were left intact. And he’s using that brain to conduct research on human life that has mind-bending possibilities.

One of his areas of focus is cell design. “A cell is a very tiny and powerful computer,” he says. “It takes a lot of inputs and delivers outputs and interacts with its environment. The idea with cell design is that you can design a cell to detect new environments and deliver new responses.”

Garton is designing a new cell-sensing system that “can be customized to recognize disease-associated molecules and then signal to genetic logic and circuitry that we’ll design to deliver a therapeutic response.”

And how would this help with aging? “Let’s say you have arthritis in your knee. We would take cells from the knee, put in our genetic circuitry and it will detect arthritis-related molecules. We’d put the cells back in the knee, so if arthritis flares up again, the cells will detect this and deliver a therapeutic response for the rest of your life. You’d actually never even know that you have arthritis.”

Garton calls this a “quasi-curative treatment,” adding that it could be replicated for a great many diseases and conditions.

He is also redesigning a peptide that would be very briefly released into the brain when you have a stroke or injury. The peptide triggers cells to go into a protective mode, so that cell death is prevented and antioxidative programs are mounted. “By designing a lifelong version, we could potentially also use this in Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s to stop neurons from dying,” he says, “and at the very least, slow down the progression of the diseases.” It’s early days, but he has designed an analogue that should last 12 hours in the body.

Oksana Andreiuk (BSc ’13, MBiotech ’15) encourages us to look past the hype. “The wild claims of living to 500 are just that — wild claims,” says Andreiuk, founder of Biohacking and Longevity TO, a group of more than 300 longevity advocates. “What the longevity movement is focusing on is acknowledging that we are living longer and then finding ways to increase the healthspan we can enjoy during these extra years through prevention or reversal of the onset of age-related diseases.”

“It’s one thing to live to 100 or older, but if the last 10 or 20 years are spent battling chronic diseases, then what’s the point?” says Andreiuk, who earned a master’s in biotechnology from U of T and now does pharmaceutical marketing.

“As an older adult, it’s not about how old you are, but what you are able to do at any given age,” says Allison Sekuler, U of T psychology professor and vice-president of research at Baycrest Health Sciences. “We are not talking about lifespan but about increasing the healthspan. Yes, we want people to live longer. But we also want them to live better, to get the most out of their lives throughout their entire lifespan.”

No one knows about that better than U of T’s Prof. David Jenkins (above), a renowned nutrition scientist who believes firmly that healthy lifestyles can go a long way to creating healthy aging.

“I’m not knocking drugs, but the more you ask of a drug, the more you risk a side effect,” he says. “Hopefully, we will get the longevity drug that has no side effects, but I believe that’s some time off.”

His alternative, for the time being: to inhibit the human tendency toward sloth and gluttony. “Of the seven original sins, these two rate very highly on our shortened longevity,” says Jenkins, who led the team that developed the glycemic index.

Jenkins, 76, has been a vegan for the past 10 years and a vegetarian since he was 11. “But I have a voracious appetite. I can’t control it. So I exercise.”

He recalls a fellow research student who worked with him in a lab when Jenkins was a graduate student. “He was from India. He was slim. His blood pressure was excellent, so much better than the rest of us.

“He was in perfect health. He didn’t drive a car in India. But at university he fattened up, began driving a car and led a Western lifestyle. By his second year, his blood pressure was no different from the rest of ours. To us, that was a key example of what a Western lifestyle can do to you.”

In terms of taking the next big steps in aging research, many advocates believe that having the World Health Organization classify aging as a disease will help attract much-needed funding.

But Sekuler is leery of that. “It implies you’re saying there’s something wrong with older people. And that’s just not true. Aging is a process and it’s inevitable. We need to be changing the way people think about aging but we should be thinking about it in a more positive light.”