THE BIOLOGY OF AGING

By Dr. Douglas Watt, Ph.D. 

Adjunct Professor, Graduate Department of Psychology Lesley University 

Clinical Neuroscience Advisor, 9th Dimension Biotech, Inc.  

Highlights:  

• THE BIOLOGY OF AGING AND THE OVERLAPPING MECHANISMS OF AGE-RELATED DISEASE.

• THE OBESITY CRISIS.  

• WHY WE ARE LOSING THE BATTLE AGAINST THE DISEASES OF AGING - AND WHAT WE CAN DO DIFFERENTLY.

By Dr. Douglas Watt, Ph.D. 

Adjunct Professor, Graduate Department of Psychology Lesley University 

Clinical Neuroscience Advisor, 9th Dimension Biotech, Inc.  

Highlights:  

• CALORIE-RESTRICTION (CR) MIMETICS - WITH A SPECIAL FOCUS ON ADIPONECTIN AND OSMOTIN.  

• THE SYNERGISMS OF LIFESTYLE CHANGE AND CR MIMETICS.  

In Part II, we dive into the Alice-in-Wonderland world of cell signals and the (growing) complexity of how cells regulate and organize a bevy of responses to environmental signals – this is clearly part of evolutionary adaptation to shifting environs.  We focus specifically on the calorie restriction (CR) response, which is conserved across phylogeny, and on substances that may at least partially mimic CR, termed CR mimetics.  To understand these issues better, we need to review the still young and emerging science of mTOR, and the networks around it, and how AMPK, surtuins, other transcription factors and signals create a catabolic cell signaling space counterposed to the fundamental vectors of mTOR, with long term and major health benefits.  Harsh blockade of mTOR may be very bad for us, but long term disinhibition – as in obesity, DMII, CAD, CA, and neurodegenerative disorders (most age-related disease) – looks very bad also.  Tonic or pulsatile restraint on mTOR with some permission for growth signals (critical to tissue repair/maintenance and decent neuroplasticity) but with concomitant upregulation of autophagy (cellular ‘trash disposal’) and strong dampening of ‘inflammaging’ appears a difficult but highly desirable ‘sweet spot’ – once again the Greeks were prescient in their advocacy for moderation in all things.  We look at Adiponectin as an emerging and fairly recently confirmed critical player in this CR catabolic process, with interactions with AMPK and several PPARs, and how Osmotin may offer critical avenues for agonist effects on AdPN receptor families.  Many questions remain, and much scientific and technical opportunity lies ahead.