From: Rafal Smigrodzki (rafal@smigrodzki.org)
Date: Sat Apr 05 2003 - 23:14:45 MST
----- Original Message -----
From: "Robert J. Bradbury" <bradbury@aeiveos.com>
To: <extropians@extropy.org>
Sent: Friday, April 04, 2003 5:47 PM
Subject: Aging: don't go there [was: manganese SOD and CR]
>
> On Fri, 4 Apr 2003, Ramez Naam wrote (among some other things):
>
> > My first reaction is a bit skeptical. Creatures with increased SOD
> > production don't act like CR creatures. CR creatures are smaller and
> > have lower fertility.
>
> [many snips]
>
> I would strongly suggest *not* going there (in attempting to make sense
> of this at this time).
>
> Yes the mitochondria produce free radicals -- this appears to be related
> to the "throughput" of the mitochondrial respiratory chain [when it gets
> backed up more free radicals get generated] -- but one of the
life-extending
> mutations in C. elegans involves insufficient Co-Q9 or Co-Q10 (so the
> mitochondrial transport chains get backed up, do suffer reduced transport
> capacity and perhaps greater free radical generation. But this may be
> offset by the reduced ATP generation (effectively CR). But then in
mammals
> you have the uncoupling proteins (which serve to facilitate heat
production and
> would reduce the backup in the mitochondrial transport chains) (I posted
> extensively about this probably about a year ago). But they might
generate more free
> radicals if the free radical production is an inherent part of the
respiratory
> glucose/oxygen consumption process. (I.e. more heat == more free
radicals).
> But then the free radicals could be offset by anti-oxidants such as
> estrogen or alpha-lipoic acid that may not be present in large quantities
> in more primitive organisms.
>
> If one wades into this one is wading into one of the most complex
> intellectual problems I'm aware of -- and given the state of our
> knowledge base I personally don't think resolving it isn't going
> to be pretty.
>
> Go relax on the beach -- let the grad students that actually
> need to debate these things deal with it.
>
### I keep debating the related problem of mitochondrial mutations in PD
about once a day with my boss and other people, and I can only concur - we
know little, the system is complex, methods crude. But, we are moving
forward, step by infinitesimal step. I started recently working with a laser
capture microscope and we have some ideas about how to nail the mutations,
which we know simply *must* be there, but haven't been found, despite dozens
of people working on it.
Give us a couple million $ and an extra sequencer or two, and we'll get
them. Guaranteed.
No beach lounging for me :-)
Rafal
BTW, I agree with Mez's skepticism about the article I quoted.
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