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CHANGING TIMES |
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Experts in anti-aging research envision the medical treatments that would lengthen and improve children's lives. Some of that research, such as advances in gene therapy, is already being put to use. Other techniques including the use of growth factors, were being tested in selected groups. Still other techniques such as organ regeneration, cryonics and nanotechnology were in the earliest stage of development, little more than theories that ought to work but could not yet be tested.
Gene therapy
New medications may eventually alter the effects of genes, but a more direct approach would be to transplant genes themselves. Individuals whose cholesterol has risen to unacceptable levels might receive genes based on those enjoyed by the lucky ones. Practically, gene therapy for most conditions is probably decades away, but experiments on humans have already been conducted for lowering cholesterol. Gene therapy also holds promise for treatment of dealing immune function, as well as for heart disease, arthritis, diabetes, Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease.
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THE GENOME PROJECT |
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This project, intended to identify the exact location of every human gene, is scheduled to be completed by the year 2005. Even as it progresses, other researchers are trying to identify protective genes by backtracking from the damage the genes cause — in heart disease, Alzheimer's disease and cancer. They hope to discover the damage inherent in some gene's actions. In the twenty first century, gene therapy is expected to come on its own.
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FUTURE THERAPIES |
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Yet, gene therapy alone will not be among the new technologies. The prospectors on the farthest frontier of the future are working on nanotechnology, cryonics, and organ regeneration. From the viewpoint of these fields, aging is far from inevitable. Adding life to years, not just years to life is the goal of aging research.
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NANOTECHNOLOGY |
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If exceedingly small machines could enter the body and travel through it, the few malfunctioning cells could be cut away and replaced. This is the world envisioned by nanotechnology. It wants to engineer machines that can manipulate atoms to build molecules. All cell machines are pretty much the same, but they can be specialized, thanks to the genetic code. They may be heart cell machines and skin cell machines. From a nanotechnological view point, DNA is a living software. DNA determines each cell machine function.
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CRYOSURGERY OR HYPOTHERMIC SURGERY |
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This is used by surgeons to repair damaged hearts and seal off weakened blood vessels that threaten the brain by bringing down the body temperature. The patient is then gradually rewarmed, and normal function returns. Cryosurgery seeks to freeze the body at the end of life. Once a cure is found for the disease that killed the body, it will be rewarmed and revived. While no one has been brought back from freezing, experiment with animals are keeping hopes for eventual revival.
