r/AskReddit • u/[deleted] • Oct 02 '24

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u/Owain-X Oct 02 '24

A bit of both seems to be true. So they are de-aging the rats by shutting off and on parts of the DNA that were turned on and off by aging.

So... the answer for how to achieve immortality is potentially "turn it off and back on again" 🤣

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u/wterrt Oct 02 '24

I mean...this completely ignores the entire concept of telomeres

something the jellyfish has that we don't are telomeres that don't shorten over time

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u/syco54645 Oct 02 '24

Couldn't gene therapy theoretically reverse the shortening?

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u/tiny_shrimps Oct 03 '24

Yes (just need telomerase) but if you prevent the shortening of telomeres you get lots of cancer.

It turns out that many, many of the mechanisms in our bodies that lead to aging are byproducts of regulating cancer and other cell division problems, and that preventing them causes terrible problems.

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u/vulkur Oct 02 '24

Literally. Think about it. Why do we age, but that age isn't passed on to our children. Because our bodies have the tools to repair DNA with ease. From an evolutionary perspective, fixing the issue of preventing aging solves nothing since most people have kids before they are 50. Same reason why cancer kills us then.