The quest for immortality

Is there any Ambrosia, Nectar, or Somras that can make us immortal? Although we don't talk of death, somewhere deep down we have this fear that the game of life will be over one day. The average life expectancy has more than doubled in a century. In the last 2 decades, science has made exponential progress in figuring out how our biology works. In the year 2000, we successfully sequenced the human genome. As compute became accessible and affordable, there has been an explosion of scientific prowess. Alpha Fold 3 (developed by Deep Mind) has already discovered existing and new proteins and how they fold. We are shorting the time taken for a drug to be released into the market to weeks from years. The race for immortality is underway and it shows no sign of abating.

Stem cells, cloning, epigenetics, etc. are all progressing to find that elixir of life. Let me throw some light. We all have heard the term DNA and possibly RNA (from m-RNA Covid vaccines). DNA is the code of life (consisting of just 4 letters ATGC - Adenine, Thymine, Guanine, and Cytosine) that is a double helix structure. A always pairs with T and G with C. Hence even if you have a single strand of DNA, it's enough to know what its other strand consists of. RNA on the other hand has 'U' - Uracil instead of 'C' - Cytosine. While DNA codes for proteins, it's the RNA that transcribes it. A gene is nothing but a section of DNA that is expressed as an attribute. For example, your eye color, your skin tone, etc.

When we age the DNA undergoes many changes. All biological processes are probabilistic, in the sense that they are not perfect. Take for instance, when a ribosome creates a protein from an mRNA. For every thousand letters, it misreads one. On top of that, a protein may not fold properly (dementia is caused because of this). The DNA is also exposed to the environment. ( that means both our physical and mental ) Things like X-rays, UV rays, stress (too much cortisol), etc. can also cause a change in DNA. If the DNA of a cell is damaged, it can lead to senescence (the cell no longer multiplies), cell suicide or irregularities. A healthy cell multiplies for several times during its life span. At the end of the chromosome (X-like structure holding the genes) is the CCCTAA/TTAGGG (about 1000 repeats) code called a telomere. When a cell divides, we lose a bit of it. When there is no more telomere in a cell, it has reached the end of its life. An enzyme called telomerase is used to increase the number of telomeres.

Now comes the fun part. Scientists are racing to find a telomerase substitute so that our cells never age and we live forever. However, here's the problem. A cell that never ages and keeps on multiplying infinitely is the cause of cancer. Our immune system cannot attack its own cells, hence they proliferate. The solution to this is that we have to turn off the gene that produces cancer. (BRCA1, p53, etc.) This can be done in 2 ways: de-methylation and histonic de-acetylaysation). Methyl (CH3) is found on some of the DNA letters. The subsequent letters after a methyl sequence suppress the gene. In the same way, histones (outside protein coatings of a DNA) having an acetyl (C-O-CH3) group activate the gene that follows. This is being widely used in many countries.

However, there is no 100% guarantee. Results are promising, but we are still far away from immortality. In the future, the life spans are set to increase further. But reversing aging completely is a thought that gives me goosebumps. Will all of us put in our collective effort to make this come true or will we continue the ego-trip that we are on, endlessly? Only time will tell.

Reminds me of the Bhagavad GIta where Lord Krishna says "I have come as time, destroyer of the worlds". Will we be able to bend time and live forever? Then it won't be just our souls that are immortal.

God Bless!

((( Rajesh Menon )))