A fish that stops aging? Yes, but it does
it’s not just any fish, but the killi: a magnificent fish
turquoise, with yellow and red fins who lives in the lakes of Zimbabwe and
from Mozambique. If you want to see what it looks like, you
find the photo in The Parisian Today in France.
The researchers, the newspaper explains,
interested in his case after realizing that he was able to get in
pause mode, to stop aging, and this for months, for
sometimes longer than its total lifespan.
In his case, it is a question of
survival. The ponds where the killi develop in Africa only exist
during the rainy season, when they are dry, the animal has no choice,
he goes in diapause. A phenomenon that is also called life
suspended: in clear his body adapts to recover better as if
nothing was once conditions are favorable again.
Diapause phenomenon
So how does he do it? Well that’s what
Stanford University researchers tried to understand. The results of their study were published on
last week in the prestigious journal Science. Conclusion: the key, they say, is a protein called CBX7.
It is she who would play a major role in the
diapause phenomenon. Normally explains the site Slate this
protein preserves muscles in vertebrates and regulates genes in
organs. However, when it is produced in large quantities,
as the killi does during a drought, it allows to pass
in diapause, to enter a animation state suspended, a little like
hibernation.
From there to imagine injections of this
protein, there is only one step. Yes of course the objective of these researchers: to adapt these mechanisms on the human body in order to stop aging. One can imagine, explains in the Guardian one of the authors of the research, that activating a state similar to diapause
in certain tissues or on certain adult cells could help them
preserve in the long term. But the road is obviously still long, all that said it is still only speculative.
Geroscience
In the meantime read the magazine Sciences and Future, which this month is devoting a large dossier to all these
research aimed at delaying aging. Geroscience is the name of this discipline, is booming. And for good reason, aging is one of
societal but also economic challenges of tomorrow.
By 2050, recalls the newspaper, population
world over 60 will double. Some people work on proteins
circulating in our blood, and looking for a way to rejuvenate them, others are working on drugs capable
to clean or even eliminate aging cells.
Tests conducted on mice have already allowed
ofextend duration by 36%. Neurologist Yves Agid, founder of the institute
of the brain, ensures that it is in the brain that we must look for the
solution. You can, he says, have osteoarthritis, or white hair, but that’s not what makes you look old. No, according to him we
find that a person is old because they are walking slowly, that their
voice weakens, whether it loses memory a bit or becomes moody. The brain is responsible for all of these
signs.
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