Re: GLOOMY NEWS: antagonistic pleiotropy in p53

From: CurtAdams@aol.com
Date: Fri Jan 04 2002 - 01:27:51 MST


(Damien Broderick cites a recent paper indicating p53 protects against tumors
in mice at the cost of speeding aging)

I don't think it's gloomy news. Basic population biology indicates aging
either serves some purpose useful for the aging individual or it's really,
really hard to fix. So, I expected this kind of thing. To really fix aging,
we must step outside of the box with cyborgization or cell line replacement
(either in vivo or ex vivo via organ replacement). This result actually
brings us a bit closer to the latter in that we have a slightly better
understanding of what must be fixed in the replacement line. Further, we may
be able to manipulate related systems in people to improve quality or
quantity of life in individual people. The systems should approach
optimality for a human hunter-gatherer but may be a bit off for our lives;
plus we can adjust the systems to deal with specific problems: de-age for
broken hips and prostatectomy; age for cancer treatment.



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