Imagine living in a world where the mean retirement age is well into the late 80s. In this world, you could live up to 130 years old. It seems like a far-flung future, where medicine has advanced to the point that we can slow down aging and eliminate age-based diseases. But this future predicts an increase in life spans and quality of life for older humans. Scientists at the University of Rochester have made a breakthrough that could make this future closer than you think.
It all starts with the naked mole rat, a small rodent species with a very interesting adaptation. The naked mole rat has an average lifespan of 41 years! That is almost ten times longer than other rodents of its size. It is also virtually impervious to diseases caused by aging. Cancer, cardiovascular disease, and arthritis are extremely rare in the mole rat. This resiliency to aging and diseases has long attracted geneticists to try and find out how this is possible.
Enter Dr. Vera Gorbunova, a professor of biology at the University of Rochester. She and her colleague Andrei Seluanov have studied this process and made some amazing breakthroughs. First, the way the mole rat lives longer and is resistant to disease comes from its ability to produce a molecule called High Molecular Weight Hyaluronic Acid (HMW-HA) in far greater quantities than other mammals. When HMW-HA is removed from the cells of the mole rats, cancer forms. With this knowledge, Gordunova and team have successfully transplanted the gene that produces the mole rat HMW-HA into mice. The mice have shown increased resistance to disease and have modeled longer lifespans in laboratory testing.
This successful transplant notes the first step in extending the lives of humans and other mammals, maybe up to 4% longer and possibly more as research continues. There is a good chance that we have extended retirements as things progress in this way.