Re: [DIYbio] Re: Longecity: a crowdfunding strategy worth watching

On 09/24/2013 03:34 PM, Nathan McCorkle wrote:

On Sep 24, 2013 4:22 AM, "Reason" <reason@fightaging.org> wrote:

It isn't quite a random process. Per the mitochondrial free radical
theory of aging there are only thirteen important mitochondrial genes in
this mechanism, where damage will lead to a particular set of electron
transport chain defects that cause defective mitochondria in the herd to
evade quality control via mitophagy and outcompete non-defective
mitochondria, taking over the cell.

Other mutations don't have that effect, and so will be winnowed.

There's a layman's summary here:

https://www.fightaging.org/archives/2006/10/how-age-damaged-mitochondria-cause-your-cells-to-damage-you.php

2006? Surely tons more data has been produced in that time, no?

If this was a field as well funded as stem cell research then that would be a reasonable expectation. But it isn't. The mitochondrial free radical theory in its current form is a 1990s thing, and the data gathered since then really just allows people to argue in more detail about how exactly its epicycles work. The big picture of the theory hasn't much changed in that time.

The only people who really care about mitochondrial mutations are (a) some biogerontologists, low budget, not many of them, and (b) researchers working on rare conditions like LHON that are caused by inherited mitochondrial mutations, and again there isn't much money or interest there in comparison to the mainstream.

Reason

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