[HN Gopher] Anti-aging breakthrough: Stem cells reverse signs of...
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Anti-aging breakthrough: Stem cells reverse signs of aging in
       monkeys
        
       Archive link: https://archive.md/uwR3d, Research Paper:
       https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(25)00571-9
        
       Author : bilsbie
       Score  : 151 points
       Date   : 2025-10-02 19:39 UTC (3 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.nad.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.nad.com)
        
       | choeger wrote:
       | So a question to the experts here: What's the catch?
        
         | piker wrote:
         | gotta be cancer
        
           | tomhowsalterego wrote:
           | Personally I'm holding out for something a bit more
           | interesting like some even more macabre Picture of Dorian
           | Gray type thing.
        
           | PUSH_AX wrote:
           | When you extend human lifespan long enough, cancer becomes
           | close to inevitable anyway.
        
             | inglor_cz wrote:
             | Or maybe not. Some species are very resistant to cancer.
             | For example, bats basically never get it, even though they
             | live up to 40 years.
             | 
             | Would they get cancer if they lived for 400 years? Maybe
             | not either. Their immune systems are very good, better than
             | ours.
             | 
             | (We humans don't really want to acknowledge that some other
             | animals may have better immune systems, or any other
             | systems, at their disposal.)
             | 
             | On the other end of the scale, mice die of cancer while not
             | even three years old, because their immune systems are
             | really bad at fighting cancer cells.
             | 
             | Cancer in mammals seems to be a function of failing immune
             | systems rather than raw age in numbers. In some species,
             | including us humans, weakening of the immune system goes
             | hand in hand with aging. But in others it does not.
        
               | echelon wrote:
               | The correct way to phrase this is that humans have a
               | level of cancer that does not greatly impede the fitness
               | of the species in having offspring. We didn't hill climb
               | into other evolutionary protective mechanisms because
               | they either were not discovered or did not convey
               | appropriate fitness benefits.
               | 
               | Our evolutionary biology doesn't "care" if we get cancer.
               | Just that we have healthy children and can rear them for
               | one or two generations. That was a (locally) optimal
               | algorithm.
               | 
               | We have plenty of in-built checks and protections in our
               | molecular biology, and they are sufficient to expand the
               | species.
        
               | andrewl wrote:
               | See _Peto 's Paradox_ for discussion of different cancer
               | rates among species:
               | 
               | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peto's_paradox
        
               | ACCount37 wrote:
               | Peto's paradox - and the existence of whales in
               | particular.
               | 
               | If cancer really is an inevitability, then whales, who
               | have both livespan limits longer than that of humans, and
               | enormous bodies with a staggering amount of living cells,
               | would be full of cancer. They aren't.
               | 
               | Clearly, humans must have better innate cancer
               | suppression than mice, and whales must have better innate
               | cancer suppression than humans.
               | 
               | There are some hints that this may come down to
               | programmed cell death and DNA repair mechanisms (i.e. the
               | p53 pathway) more than the immune system tweaks - with
               | immune response being the "last resort" of cancer
               | suppression. But we also don't know enough about the
               | immune system to be able to examine it the same detail we
               | can examine the DNA repair pathways.
        
           | JumpCrisscross wrote:
           | > _gotta be cancer_
           | 
           | "Notably, none of the cell transplant recipients developed
           | tumors (n = 16)."
           | 
           | https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(25)00571-9?_re.
           | ..
        
           | mullingitover wrote:
           | If a subset of the population stops dying, and that group
           | grows, you've just invented cancer again on a different
           | scale.
        
           | bitwize wrote:
           | So the best way to get induced pluripotent stem cells is
           | through the Yamanaka factors, which are proteins coded for by
           | genes which are not expressed in mature cells. Using all four
           | Yamanaka factors is a one-way ticket to tumor town. But, as
           | it turns out, using three of the four still gets you IPSCs
           | without the elevated cancer risk.
        
         | paulpauper wrote:
         | Monkeys are not humans, anti-aging is imprecise and does not
         | necessarily translate into longer life expectancies for people,
         | and promises of extending life have always fallen short of
         | hype, and odds are this will too.
        
           | JumpCrisscross wrote:
           | > _Monkeys are not humans_
           | 
           | The implanted stem cells, however, were human. (The fact that
           | that the treatments did not cause "fever or substantial
           | changes in immune cell levels (lymphocytes, neutrophils, and
           | monocytes), which are commonly monitored for xenograft-
           | related immune responses," is itself surprising.)
           | 
           | > _promises of extending life have always fallen short of
           | hype, and odds are this will too_
           | 
           | Correct, though I'd say because this is early-stage medical
           | research. Not because it's targeting longevity. I'd be
           | similarly sceptical of an N = 16 early-stage drug trial for
           | the flu.
        
             | SubiculumCode wrote:
             | 16 primates is not small when it comes to primate studies.
             | In any case, knowing how expensive and rare primate
             | research is to conduct, I doubt this is the first animal
             | model used on this approach.
             | 
             | In terms of replicatability, it is also not always the
             | sample size, it is the effect size. Small samples do affect
             | ability to generalize, but the point is that sample size
             | isn't everything.
        
               | JumpCrisscross wrote:
               | > _its the effect size_
               | 
               | Which effect size do you find lacking?
        
               | SubiculumCode wrote:
               | I was responding to the idea that listing a small sample
               | size automatically means its shit science.
        
               | JumpCrisscross wrote:
               | Oh, absolutely correct. Small study doesn't mean shit
               | science. It just means there is plenty of room for
               | randomness and hidden variables to create havoc on the
               | way to a treatment.
        
           | SubiculumCode wrote:
           | But they sure ain't mice, either. This is a LOT closer than
           | results in mice.
        
           | jasondigitized wrote:
           | Is there another, better animal that is used in late stage
           | testing for other drugs you are aware of?
        
         | SubiculumCode wrote:
         | Examine your assumptions. There is no inherent reason that
         | there has to be a catch. We are all from a long line of
         | cellular reproduction that has lasted billions of years. There
         | is no inherent reasons why cellular mechanisms can't keep
         | maintaining/replacing a collection of those cell lineages...our
         | relatively short lifespans are probably the products of
         | evolutionary fitness functions acting on more fruitful
         | strategies for reproductive success than staying off aging.
        
           | lukan wrote:
           | My assumption is, there are lots of rich people who want to
           | live forever and lots of people who want their wealth and
           | breakthroughs with anti ageing were quite rare or rather non
           | existent as far as I know.
        
             | SubiculumCode wrote:
             | My assumption is that I'd feel more certain if this science
             | had been conducted in the U.S. or Europe, but your
             | assumptions is a little too conspiratorial for me.
        
               | lukan wrote:
               | How many breakthroughs have there been so far in anti-
               | aging research that turned out to be real?
        
           | jl6 wrote:
           | When the upside is extraordinary, it's very reasonable to
           | expect some downside, just based on experience of, like,
           | everything ever.
           | 
           | As well as the undeniable benefit to individuals, a cure for
           | aging would unleash a whole new bunch of problems that have
           | been kept in check through the mechanism of people dying off
           | regularly. A society of immortals could be quite alien to us.
        
             | somesortofthing wrote:
             | Biology is one of very few areas of science where you do
             | just find free lunches sometimes. Human bodies are adapted
             | to environments with harsh constraints about injuries,
             | pathogens, temperature, energy usage, etc. The only catch
             | to counteracting those adaptations is that it makes you
             | worse at being a hunter-gatherer.
        
               | JumpCrisscross wrote:
               | > _Biology is one of very few areas of science where you
               | do just find free lunches sometimes_
               | 
               | Good example is vitamin supplementation. There isn't a
               | downside. It's just a fuck-up we can't synthesise vitamin
               | C. (There may be path-dependent benefits, _e.g._ our jaw
               | muscles getting smaller thereby permitting a larger
               | brain. But we don 't need to be vitamin C restricted
               | anymore.)
        
             | throwuxiytayq wrote:
             | Same to be said about the solution for hunger, pain,
             | sadness, madness. I guess we better stay where are just in
             | case.
        
           | sebastialonso wrote:
           | Catch is perhaps a strong word. Trade-off would be more
           | accurate.
           | 
           | Every action in the known universe (and surely in some
           | unknown ones too) results in a trade-off. This is maybe the
           | only precept on software architecture that doesn't "depends"
           | on anything and is closer to natural law.
        
             | ACCount37 wrote:
             | The only tradeoff that's truly enforced is "you need to
             | spend energy to get anything done".
             | 
             | Human body isn't exactly bottlenecked by energy
             | availability. Calories are getting cheaper and cheaper,
             | with obesity rates as a testament to that.
        
               | jdiff wrote:
               | Sure, but there's usually plenty of other tradeoffs in
               | any system of notable complexity. This is certainly a
               | system of notable complexity. We may find that there is
               | mental degradation that's not covered by this. We may
               | discover that cancer is practically unavoidable if you
               | live long enough, and the problem compounds even further
               | with age than we can anticipate now. There's never just
               | one lever being pulled in isolation.
        
               | ACCount37 wrote:
               | I mean, if you gain +20 years of longevity to most of the
               | body, but not to mind? That's still 20 extra years of
               | lifespan if you're lucky. And if you aren't, it's still
               | better health in general, until your mind goes.
               | 
               | There are old people who remain lucid and active well
               | into their nineties, not getting dementia or cancer -
               | through some combination of good luck, good genes and
               | good lifestyle choices. They live a good life - until a
               | stroke cripples them, or the heart fails them, or a very
               | mundane illness like flu puts them in bed and they never
               | quite recover from it. If that couldn't happen to them,
               | how many more good years would that buy them?
               | 
               | Any treatment that addresses the aging-associated
               | systematic decline in bodily functions should be
               | extremely desirable. Even if it wouldn't help _everyone_
               | live longer, it would help a lot of people live better
               | lives nonetheless.
        
             | neom wrote:
             | My personal thought on the "catch" (of "curing death") is
             | that we seriously don't understand how removing or slowing
             | evolution in the equation at the population level plays out
             | over time. Evolution seems to be a fairly robust and
             | complex subsystem of reality.
        
         | onionisafruit wrote:
         | It delays that sweet eternal rest
        
         | SirFatty wrote:
         | It's really adrenochrome.
        
         | chrisco255 wrote:
         | The title is overblown. This just improves certain biomarkers
         | that are associated with aging. This might improve healthspan
         | but there is no indication that these monkeys will live any
         | longer than the natural range.
        
           | nikkwong wrote:
           | That might not be true, if you look at the paper:
           | 
           | "The super stem cells prevent age-related bone loss while
           | rejuvenating over 50% of the 61 tissues analyzed." (including
           | the brain).
           | 
           | What do people die of when they die of 'old age'? There's the
           | 3 pillars: cancer, cardiovascular, neurodegenerative. These
           | are often (but not always) metabolic diseases; i.e.
           | cardiovascular death often arises from kidney insufficiency.
           | If you can regenerate the liver, kidney, etc. indefinitely, a
           | large vector of metabolic disease is probably diminished or
           | disappears.
           | 
           | In the paper, monkeys restored brain volume. They reduced the
           | levels of senescent cells to youthful levels. They increased
           | bone mass. This reduces or eliminates many of the threats
           | that inflict casualties among the centenarian population.
           | 
           | Sure, something else could come up that the monkeys start
           | dying from instead. But, given the way humans and monkeys die
           | of old age--by reducing or eliminating all known threats--
           | it's hard to see how this wouldn't extend lifespan.
        
             | chrisco255 wrote:
             | This paper doesn't prove that it extends lifespan. So to
             | speculate on that extraordinary claim without extraordinary
             | evidence to back it up is useless. It would be far easier
             | to prove this out on a species with a much smaller lifespan
             | like mice, not to mention cheaper, but so far we're unable
             | to make a mouse live longer than 5 years.
        
         | ikrenji wrote:
         | I skimmed the article looking for a lifespan plot. Didn't see
         | one. Instead it is replaced by a "proprietary multidimensional
         | primate aging clock measurement". Take it as you will...
        
         | disambiguation wrote:
         | Aging is related to shortening of telomeres - the speculated
         | evolutionary advantage is that it's a mechanism to protect
         | against cancer.
         | 
         | Unclear from the study what the stem cells are doing to address
         | either problem.
        
       | gennarro wrote:
       | Link doesn't work?
        
       | cheema33 wrote:
       | At the time of this writing, the link does not work.
       | 
       | 504 Gateway Time-out nginx/1.18.0 (Ubuntu)
        
       | btbuildem wrote:
       | This is one of these scientific endeavours I cannot get behind.
       | Sure, in theory, it would be amazing to live a thousand years --
       | but it reeks so strongly of the genie's bottle, I don't think we
       | should pursue it.
       | 
       | It would likely only be the uber-wealthy and powerful who would
       | have access to this technology. Picture a world where a slew of
       | today's despots (including the current American president) get to
       | live for two, or three human lifespans.
       | 
       | If that doesn't cool your jets, let's say the treatment is so
       | cheap it can be widely available to everyone. Now you have
       | prisoners, slaves, exploited labourers who live for centuries.
       | It's madness. I don't think we've evolved enough, ethically
       | speaking, as a species to wrestle with such long lifespans.
        
         | vinni2 wrote:
         | Anti aging is not just about living long. Having a good quality
         | of life as long as you live is essential. The world population
         | is ageing and costs of caring for them will be huge cost for
         | humanity.
        
         | JumpCrisscross wrote:
         | > _would likely only be the uber-wealthy and powerful who would
         | have access to this technology_
         | 
         | If by uber-wealthy you mean most people in rich countries,
         | sure. Otherwise, I don't see why this would progress in a way
         | all other medicine has not.
        
           | nonethewiser wrote:
           | Where are the stem cells coming from?
        
             | JumpCrisscross wrote:
             | > _Where are the stem cells coming from?_
             | 
             | This study appears to have used "human embryonic stem cells
             | (hESCs)" [1]. We haven't tested this with iPSCs [2].
             | 
             | Even if it only works with hESCs, if the part of the
             | population that thinks blastocysts are people wants to live
             | a third or a quarter as long as the part that doesn't, I
             | don't see a problem with that. We're basically going in
             | that direction with vaccination anyway.
             | 
             | [1] https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(25)00571-
             | 9?_re...
             | 
             | [2]
             | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Induced_pluripotent_stem_cell
        
               | nonethewiser wrote:
               | Thank you for the details about this article but that's
               | not quite what I meant.
               | 
               | I meant where do you get enough stem cells to make the
               | procedure widely available to the developed world? Stem
               | cells are kinda scarce, as far as I know, so it may gate
               | such a thing.
        
               | JumpCrisscross wrote:
               | > _Stem cells are kinda scarce, as far as I know_
               | 
               | Embryonic stem cells are rare in America because of
               | religious types. They're not particularly difficult to
               | manufacture or extract--the limit is really human eggs,
               | and we can make those in the lab [1]. (Human sperm are
               | not, for many reasons, difficult to secure.)
               | 
               | I'd actually guess hESCs would be the cheapest route. If
               | we insist on iPSCs, then this turns into a personalised
               | medicine treatment. But in that, it's no different from
               | _e.g._ oncology.
               | 
               | [1] https://www.npr.org/2025/09/30/nx-s1-5553322/ivg-
               | human-eggs-...
        
         | Bender wrote:
         | _Do you still want this longevity to be real?_
         | 
         | I want this longevity to be real. I have to stick around long
         | enough to see if people respond differently to me when they are
         | older.
         | 
         |  _' If You Are Not a Liberal When You Are Young, You Have No
         | Heart, and If You Are Not a Conservative When Old, You Have No
         | Brain'_ Nobody seems to agree on who actually said that.
        
           | DrewADesign wrote:
           | The author of that quote only proved that those two qualities
           | aren't mutually exclusive.
        
         | ge96 wrote:
         | You just need a Prime Radiant
        
         | gruez wrote:
         | >Picture a world where a slew of today's despots (including the
         | current American president) get to live for two, or three human
         | lifespans.
         | 
         | What makes the current lifespan any more correct than 2x or 3x,
         | or 0.5x of a century or two ago? Given that life expectancy was
         | much shorter a century ago, should we start randomly executing
         | people to keep "the uber-wealthy and powerful" from living too
         | long? That would probably have kept "the current American
         | president" from being in power.
        
           | diatone wrote:
           | Iiuc it wasn't a comment about what the perfect lifespan is.
           | It's expressing a concern about how people in power might
           | apply life extending technologies, like they do many other
           | technologies, to exercise and entrench that power.
           | 
           | Or put differently: it's a request, given limited resources
           | let's expend effort on a fairer society, not one with longer
           | lived people.
        
             | JumpCrisscross wrote:
             | > _people in power might apply life extending technologies,
             | like they do many other technologies, to exercise and
             | entrench that power_
             | 
             | Sure. One of which would be broadly granting access to it.
             | 
             | Like, if a country tried to restrict such technology to its
             | leaders, you could probably trigger regime change by simply
             | promising to share the technology in the event of
             | deposement. Every party member who barely missed the cut
             | would become your revolutionary.
        
               | diatone wrote:
               | That's possible, I suppose. I think @btbuildem was
               | expressing a personal distaste for other uses of power,
               | and an avulsion to the technology because of that. For
               | example: labor camps.
        
               | JumpCrisscross wrote:
               | > _@btbuildem was expressing a personal distaste for
               | other uses of power, and an avulsion to the technology
               | because of that_
               | 
               | Nihilistic Luddism. It works against any argument for
               | making the world a better place.
               | 
               | > _For example: labor camps_
               | 
               | ...what 's the connection between longevity and labor
               | camps? Empirically, as life expectancies (at birth and in
               | adulthood) have risen, the prevalence of labor camps has
               | gone down. We can see this both longitudinally and
               | between countries.
        
           | kiba wrote:
           | Uber rich have means of extending their power to the next
           | generation anyway. Look at North Korea. It's stagnant and
           | hardly changed despite changing hand 3 times.
           | 
           | Whereas if you live a super long life, you can't afford to be
           | risk averse and hope for a dictator to die of old age and
           | hope that will somehow magically change thing.
        
           | thaw13579 wrote:
           | Life expectancy was shorter a century ago because infant
           | mortality, disease and injury pull the average down. We've
           | done an amazing job of a society pulling up that lower end,
           | but lifespan associated with normal aging is actually fairly
           | stable. For example, Plato lived to be roughly 80 years old.
        
         | ericmay wrote:
         | You're welcome to die if you'd like, but I'll take my chances
         | on living longer with any unknown repercussions.
         | 
         | The technology would have to be accessible to everyone,
         | otherwise "the wealthy" would be murdered. And no, some
         | futuristic sci-fi bullshit isn't going to save them.
         | 
         | > Now you have prisoners, slaves, exploited labourers who live
         | for centuries.
         | 
         | I don't really understand this line of reasoning at all. Slaves
         | exist, and slavery is miserable, therefore nobody on the planet
         | should live beyond current human lifetimes? If a slave or
         | exploited person is going to get healthcare for something that
         | might otherwise cause them to die, are you arguing healthcare
         | should be withheld?
        
         | paulpauper wrote:
         | _This is one of these scientific endeavours I cannot get
         | behind. Sure, in theory, it would be amazing to live a thousand
         | years -- but it reeks so strongly of the genie 's bottle, I
         | don't think we should pursue it._
         | 
         | The odds of this actually happening are about about zero
         | anyway, so this is not something to be concerned about. I am
         | more optimistic, if it were to happen ,in unlocking economic
         | potential. Why would we not want some of society's most
         | productive people to live longer. Think of all the careers
         | derailed by illness, lives separated by death.
        
         | bsenftner wrote:
         | In today's regulatory environment, I don't even think the CEO
         | of the immortality service provider would know if their service
         | were safe. But you can guarantee it will have _personalized
         | pricing_ calculated right at the edge of the immense wealth
         | required to have that service. And it 's a high priced
         | subscription too, you betcha.
        
         | eerikkivistik wrote:
         | So the argument is essentially "8 billion people dying is a
         | problem, that is worse than whatever the result of longevity
         | is". I'm not sure that it is.
        
         | ripped_britches wrote:
         | Picture the inverse of what you are saying.
         | 
         | "Everyone can live 500 years but I think we should set up a
         | program to randomly murder them at around 60-90 years old."
        
         | bravoetch wrote:
         | Your comment appears to be based in fear, without presenting
         | any reasonable argument against extended lifespans. The idea
         | that a naughty president, or a prisoner, would live hundreds of
         | years is not a longevity problem, its a politics problem.
        
         | cosmic_cheese wrote:
         | I would expect it to shift power dynamics quite dramatically,
         | and probably in ways that can't be accurately predicted. What
         | happens when raising a family no longer occupies the bulk of
         | adults' healthy lives and lived experience and wisdom is no
         | longer dragged down by the gradual descent into senility? What
         | if age didn't inversely correlate to neuroplasticity? What if
         | as a young person, your runway to get where you want to go is
         | 80+ years after graduating high school instead of 30-40? All
         | sorts of assumptions and social structures would be upended.
        
         | octoberfranklin wrote:
         | > Picture a world where a slew of today's despots get to live
         | for two, or three human lifespans
         | 
         | Uprisings or outright assassinations would become much more
         | common.
         | 
         | Seriously. Every senior government official or sniper in Russia
         | who isn't happy with Putin is placated by telling themselves
         | "everybody dies sooner or later". Take that away and you'll
         | force people to _do_ something instead of just waiting out the
         | clock.
        
         | BriggyDwiggs42 wrote:
         | I feel like the point mostly comes down to "our current society
         | sucks so we shouldn't want to live longer in it," but that
         | could be improved and you can always just, ya know, dip out.
        
         | programjames wrote:
         | I'll just grant you that most societies are wholly unequipped
         | to deal with long lifespans, and there will be tons of murder,
         | exploitation, and suffering if we fixed our biology. First, how
         | is that any different than the current situation? Second, do
         | you expect societies to quickly evolve to fix all of these
         | problems (or at least tame them), much like societies had to do
         | after the invention of fire, agriculture, steel, gunpowder, or
         | steam?
        
         | commandlinefan wrote:
         | The next problem would be overpopulation - OTOH, if people
         | could live naturally for 1000 years or so, manned space travel
         | to habitable planets would be a lot more feasible.
        
       | JumpCrisscross wrote:
       | Hugged to death. But I think it refers to this study:
       | https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(25)00571-9?_re...
        
         | SubiculumCode wrote:
         | and a write-up: https://www.eurekalert.org/news-
         | releases/1088662
        
       | PUSH_AX wrote:
       | Maybe after this we can figure out how to reverse entropy.
       | 
       | Edit: The Last Question reference seems to have not hit. My bad.
        
         | tantalor wrote:
         | We already figured that out a while ago:
         | 
         | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entropy_and_life#Negative_entr...
        
       | codesnik wrote:
       | I'd love the current generation of POSs in power to die off
       | naturally before those advancements will be applied, thank you.
        
         | JumpCrisscross wrote:
         | > _love the current generation of POSs in power to die off
         | naturally before those advancements will be applied_
         | 
         | These treatments aren't panaceas. The benefit would almost
         | certainly accrue inversely with age.
        
         | mupuff1234 wrote:
         | To make room for a new generation of POSs?
        
         | carabiner wrote:
         | In 200 years, we're going to look at our lack of checks and
         | balances against gerontocracy as naive as trusting monarchy in
         | the middle ages.
        
           | luxuryballs wrote:
           | we may alternatively end up with even older elders because of
           | general lifespan increases, it just so happens people with
           | more experience are older, if you think older people being in
           | charge is bad just wait until you see how the younger ones do
        
         | muhammedbash wrote:
         | Too late... Putin is already all over this. No need for organ
         | transplants :)
         | 
         | 150 is the new 70
        
           | layer8 wrote:
           | This is in reference to recent events:
           | https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/sep/05/healthy-
           | living...
        
         | jayd16 wrote:
         | I do wonder how the psychology of humanity will change once you
         | can't wait for someone to die, and conversely, you can't expect
         | to die before consequences catch up to you.
        
           | JumpCrisscross wrote:
           | > _once you can 't wait for someone to die, and consequently,
           | you can't expect to die before consequences catch up to you_
           | 
           | People will still die, even in a world without ageing, which
           | this treatment doesn't promise.
        
             | Retric wrote:
             | The risk of death per year increasing with number of years
             | lived is aging.
             | 
             | Without that people have lived longer are more likely to
             | have lower risks of death per year. And thus older people
             | in such a society would on average live longer.
        
               | dandellion wrote:
               | Unless it also cures cancer a more likely outcome is that
               | people who get the treatment will just stay young until
               | they get cancer and die. Also, as I understand it cancer
               | also slows down in old age, so staying younger could mean
               | faster cancers possibly negating some of the gains from
               | the decreased aging.
        
               | Retric wrote:
               | Aging is more than just looking old.
               | 
               | If someone has an increased risk of death per year from
               | cancer or whatever because something is failing over time
               | they are still aging.
        
           | bix6 wrote:
           | Consequences seem to not matter so we'll just get a bunch of
           | meths like from altered carbon.
        
           | SequoiaHope wrote:
           | Without going in to spoilers, the recent season of the
           | Revolutions podcast about a future fictional revolution on
           | Mars touches on this a fair bit. Someone about to die seizes
           | power for himself, but no one cares much because he was
           | already in charge and extending his reign a few more years
           | till he dies was no big deal, until he extends his life and
           | lives another 75 years.
        
             | observationist wrote:
             | "Putin Eternal", or something like that. Ironically, the
             | technology will probably lead to faster, worse fates for
             | many like that than might have been the case if they'd just
             | left it alone.
        
           | michaelsbradley wrote:
           | cf. Palpatine
        
           | heavyset_go wrote:
           | The Altered Carbon universe is a manifestation of this.
        
             | ugh123 wrote:
             | I'm certain, at some point in the not so distant future,
             | Neuralink will create an arm of the company to build
             | "sleeves".
        
             | aspenmayer wrote:
             | Anyone have an ETA on Curious Yellow?
             | 
             | https://blanu.net/curious_yellow.html
             | 
             | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glasshouse_(novel)
             | 
             | h/t HN user cstross
        
         | asdfman123 wrote:
         | Fundamental attribution error. It's the system which requires
         | people be POSes to maintain their position.
         | 
         | There are a million problems that will arise if people won't be
         | able to die and that's just another one of them.
        
         | rmah wrote:
         | If you think the next generation will be any better, I have bad
         | news for you...
        
         | thomassmith65 wrote:
         | This article, like most about medical breakthroughs, is
         | probably nonsense.
         | 
         | And that's good because, for my part, I plan to shuffle off
         | this mortal coil in time not to see America elect Nick Fuentes
         | as President.
        
           | chasil wrote:
           | I don't think that the assertions are nonsense, but I don't
           | understand how this works.
           | 
           | I have heard variants on this assertion:
           | 
           | "Two of the most prominent purported underlying causes of
           | aging are chronic inflammation and senescent cells."
           | 
           | One thing that surprises me is that telomeres aren't
           | mentioned.
           | 
           | I also don't understand how this is happening (is apoptosis
           | somehow triggered?):
           | 
           | "Now, the Academy researchers demonstrate that SRCs reduce
           | senescent cells, measured using a blue dye called SA-b-Gal,
           | in multiple organs, including the brain, heart, and lungs."
           | 
           | The main mechanism of action appears to be:
           | 
           | "The therapeutic efficacy of MPCs is largely attributed to
           | their paracrine actions, with exosomes playing a pivotal role
           | in mediating these effects."
           | 
           | The researchers do not appear to fully understand how this is
           | happening:
           | 
           | "Among the diverse geroprotective functions of SRCs in the
           | brain and ovary, the restorative effect of SRC-derived
           | exosomes on aged cells and their surroundings emerges as a
           | key mechanism. Rejuvenation of aged cells by exosomes likely
           | involves multiple pathways and targets."
        
             | JumpCrisscross wrote:
             | > _telomeres aren 't mentioned_
             | 
             | The paper specifically mentions the engineered cells have
             | "extended telomeres".
        
         | bitwize wrote:
         | Contrariwise, neither Hitler nor Stalin died of old age.
         | Societies have ways of dealing with tyrants.
        
           | libraryofbabel wrote:
           | Trite, and wrong. Stalin died of a stroke at 74. To take just
           | two more examples, Mao and Franco both died at 82, also of
           | natural causes.
        
         | Razengan wrote:
         | Enter a generation of spoiled nepo babies with AI Terminators
         | to put them in power and medical immortality to keep them in
         | power.
        
         | mikestew wrote:
         | Tell them it's an anti-aging _vaccine_.
        
         | namuol wrote:
         | "To those who can hear me, I say - do not despair. The misery
         | that is now upon us is but the passing of greed - the
         | bitterness of men who fear the way of human progress.
         | 
         | The hate of men will pass, and dictators die, and the power
         | they took from the people will return to the people. And so
         | long as men die, liberty will never perish..."
        
         | torstenvl wrote:
         | Wishing harm on someone is not acceptable behavior on HN.
         | Ideological warfare is not acceptable behavior on HN. Please do
         | not do this here.
        
       | 1970-01-01 wrote:
       | Wake me when you have J. Fred Muggs[11] riding a horse on TV and
       | asking his doctor if stem cell injections are right for him.
       | Until then, I'll remain skeptical, thanks.
       | 
       | [11] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Fred_Muggs
        
       | ourmandave wrote:
       | The break even point on this is when it costs less than just
       | replacing one of the infinite monkeys working on the
       | _Shakespeare_ project.
       | 
       | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infinite_monkey_theorem
        
       | dwa3592 wrote:
       | So the only way to get rid of humans will be to kill them?
        
         | optimalsolver wrote:
         | You'll slip in the shower sooner or later.
        
           | dwa3592 wrote:
           | _
        
             | daedrdev wrote:
             | If we cure aging, life expectancy is 9000 years at current
             | accident rates
        
           | layer8 wrote:
           | Anti-aging breakthrough: Shower mats increase life expectancy
           | in monkeys
        
         | asdfman123 wrote:
         | No more new generations, no more change. Just immensely
         | powerful old people who look young grabbing ever more tightly
         | onto power.
         | 
         | Right now generational wealth fizzles out due to idiot heirs
         | eventually appearing. Imagine if someone could ride a thousand
         | years of exponential gains.
        
         | fnordpiglet wrote:
         | Open exploration of space and let the cubic volume of
         | effectively infinite space absorb them.
        
         | khalic wrote:
         | Oh there's a movie about that, I think they grow a beard and
         | you need to cut their heads
        
       | optimalsolver wrote:
       | I'm annoyed to have been born early enough for biological life
       | extension to not be available, but late enough to actually
       | consider it a possibility.
        
       | deepsun wrote:
       | Eternal life would be disastrous for humanity. Imagine all the
       | elderly autocrats got to rule forever, utterly bored, with no
       | hope in sight.
        
         | Barrin92 wrote:
         | >Imagine all the elderly autocrats got to rule forever
         | 
         | since the end of monarchies autocracy has been impersonal and
         | institutionalized. You can think of the Pope or Dalai Lama as
         | software, the latter literally being rebooted when the last one
         | kicks the bucket, the substrate doesn't matter much.
         | 
         | In the words of Jung: people don't have ideas, ideas have
         | people. Big Brother is a program, not a person and so physical
         | death doesn't help you much in that regard.
        
       | raffraffraff wrote:
       | If you had asked me how I reckoned they reversed aging in
       | Monkeys, I honestly would have said "stem cells". But then again,
       | my answer to a lot of questions these days is "stem cells".
        
         | giarc wrote:
         | It the same with CRISPR. If you see a headline about "curing"
         | this or that, good chance you'll see the word CRISPR in the
         | article.
        
       | scoopdewoop wrote:
       | If Larry Ellison outlives me so help me god
        
       | maxk42 wrote:
       | Did nobody notice that this is a spam blog designed to sell NAD+
       | supplements?
        
         | pedalpete wrote:
         | I noticed the domain and assumed it was another of Dr David
         | Sinclair's scams
         | 
         | https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/resveratrol-resear...
        
       | Tade0 wrote:
       | Interesting. Appears that we'll sooner solve ageing than ageing
       | of societies.
       | 
       | If this ever goes mainstream, I'll head off to live on Mars -
       | provided _that_ is solved beforehand.
        
         | RivieraKid wrote:
         | We're nowhere close to solving aging. We don't even understand
         | aging and understanding the problem should be much easier than
         | solving it.
        
       | billfor wrote:
       | I'm not clear why they didn't continue the treatment to see if it
       | prevented the monkeys from dying at all?
        
       | blobbers wrote:
       | It's a real research paper, but a bit of a hokey one.
       | 
       | The spam blog is just promoting it.
       | https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40516525/
        
       | chris_va wrote:
       | Maybe someone with more of a bio background can comment on the
       | actual paper. When I look through the figures, I don't see a
       | strong an evidence as they are claiming in the text.
       | 
       | E.g. figure 1G... naive image analysis (to me) does not match the
       | claimed statistics. And the statistics are all on n<10, which
       | also adds a lot of uncertainty.
        
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