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A blood test that tells you
how long you’ll live
Prof Yash
Pal
THIS UNIVERSE |
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A blood test that tells you
how long you’ll live
A blood test that can show how fast someone is ageing – and offers the tantalising possibility of estimating how long they have left to live – is to go on sale to the general public in Britain later this year.
The controversial test measures vital structures on the tips of a person’s chromosomes, called telomeres, which scientists believe are one of the most important and accurate indicators of the speed at which a person is ageing. Scientists behind the €500 (£435) test said it will be possible to tell whether a person’s “biological age”, as measured by the length of their telomeres, is older or younger than their actual chronological age. Medical researchers believe that telomere testing will become widespread within the next five or 10 years, but there are already some scientists who question its value and whether there should be stronger ethical controls over its wider use. In addition to concerns about how people will react to a test for how “old” they really are, some scientists are worried that telomere testing may be hijacked by unscrupulous organisations trying to peddle unproven anti-ageing remedies and other fake elixirs of life. The results of the tests might also be of interest to companies offering life-insurance policies or medical cover that depend on a person’s lifetime risk of falling seriously ill or dying prematurely. However, there is a growing body of scientific opinion that says testing the length of a person’s telomeres could provide vital insights into the risk of dying prematurely from a range of age-related disorders, from cardiovascular disease to Alzheimer’s and cancer. “We know that people who are born with shorter telomeres than normal also have a shorter lifespan. We know that shorter telomeres can cause a shorter lifespan,” said Maria Blasco of the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre in Madrid, who is the inventor of the new commercial telomere test. “But we don’t know whether longer telomeres are going to give you a longer lifespan. That’s not really known in humans,” she added. “What is new about this test is that it is very precise. We can detect very small differences in telomere length and it is a very simple and fast technique where many samples can be analysed at the same time. Most importantly, we are able to determine the presence of dangerous telomeres — those that are very short.” Dr Blasco’s company, Life Length, is in talks with medical diagnostic companies across Europe, including the UK, to market the test and collect blood samples for analysis in Spain. A deal with a company operating in Britain is likely within a year, she said. “We need to have a clinical company to send us the blood (samples). We are in contact with several groups in the UK who are interested,” Dr Blasco said. Life Length is anticipating hundreds of requests from people wanting to have their telomeres tested and is expecting demand from thousands more once the company is able to bring down the cost of the test as public demand increases. Although Life Length is not the only company selling telomere tests, it is the only one gearing up for over-the-counter sales to the public and the only company with an accurate-enough test to be of practical use, said Professor Jerry Shay of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Centre in Dallas. “This test devised by Blasco is so accurate that it is likely to provide more useful information than some of the other tests out there right now,” said Professor Shay, who is a scientific consultant for Life Length. “What’s important in ageing is the shortest telomeres. What makes cells stop growing is the shortest telomeres, not the average telomere length, which is what other tests look at. “Everyone talks about the chronological age, but there is also a biological age, and telomere length is actually a pretty good representation of your biological age. Telomeres are important — there is no question of that,” he said. Asked why the general public would be interested in taking a telomere test, Dr Shay said: “I think people are just basically curious about their own mortality. If you ask people what they worry about, most people would say they are worried about dying.” He added: “People might say ‘If I know I’m going to die in 10 years I’ll spend all my money now’, or ‘If I’m going to live for 40 more years I’ll be more conservative in my lifestyle’. The worrying thing is that if this information ever got to a point where it is believable, insurance companies would start requiring it in terms of insuring people. “If you smoke or you’re obese your insurance rates are higher, and if you have short telomeres your insurance rates might be higher too.” Scientists do not yet believe they can narrow down the test prediction to calculate the exact number of months and years a person has yet to live, but several studies have indicated that individuals with telomeres that shorter than normal are likely to die younger than those with longer telomeres. Telomere research is considered to be one of the most exciting areas in biomedical science and last year the Nobel Prize in medicine was shared between three scientists who are pioneers in the field. Interestingly, one of the Nobel laureates, Elizabeth Blackburn of the University of California San Francisco, is an enthusiastic proponent of telomere testing while another of the prize-winners, Carol Greider of Harvard Medical School, is more sceptical of its benefits. “Do I think it’s useful to have a bunch of companies offering to measure telomere length so people can find out how old they are? No,” Dr Greider recently told the journal Science. Dr Blasco, a former post-doctoral student in Dr Greider’s laboratory, is more certain of the benefits. “It will be useful for you to know your biological age and maybe to change your lifestyle habits if you find you have short telomeres,” she said. — The Independent
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Shuttle docks, astronauts to install $2 billion device
US weather extremes show ‘new normal’ climate WASHINGTON: Heavy rains, deep snowfalls, monster floods and killing droughts are signs of a “new normal” of extreme US weather events fuelled by climate change, scientists and government planners said on Wednesday. “It’s a new normal and I really do think that global weirding is the best way to describe what we're seeing,” climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe of Texas Tech University told reporters. Plant, animal extinctions often exaggerated OSLO: A projected spate of extinctions of animals and plants this century may be less drastic than feared because the most widely used scientific method can exaggerate losses by more than 160 percent, a study said on Wednesday. “Extinctions caused by habitat loss require greater loss of habitat than previously thought,” two experts, based in China and the United States, wrote in the journal Nature. Australian beer hopes to boldly go into space SYDNEY: Wherever man has ventured, beer has followed. Now, two Australian entrepreneurs hope that will include space. Looking ahead to a future of growing space tourism, they have developed a full-bodied brew they believe can stand up to the trials of imbibing in space, including swelling tongues that diminish the sense of taste. Third of amphibians said unknown OSLO: One in three of all types of amphibians may yet to be found by scientists and remote tropical forests should get extra protection as the likely homes of such “unknown” creatures, a study said on Wednesday. Despite centuries of research by biologists, the report estimated that 3,050 types of amphibians — a group that includes frogs, toads, salamanders and newts — were still to be described, compared to 6,296 species known to science.
— Reuters
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THIS UNIVERSE I believe there is something in favour of the explanation you have given. Planets close to a big star have a difficult time avoiding traffic of planets and debris in early life of the stellar system. You do not need close direct hits, but the large tidal effects due to close approaches might be enough to tilt directions of rotation. I keep thinking of the remarkable phenomenon that even close satellites of planets end up synchronising their rotation periods with their orbital periods around their planet. As you know this is the reason that we see only one face of the Moon. Thank you for drawing my attention to this report in Nature.
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A blood test that can show how fast someone is ageing – and offers the tantalising possibility of estimating how long they have left to live – is to go on sale to the general public in Britain later this year.
The controversial test measures vital structures on the tips of a person’s chromosomes, called telomeres, which scientists believe are one of the most important and accurate indicators of the speed at which a person is ageing.
Scientists behind the €500 (£435) test said it will be possible to tell whether a person’s “biological age”, as measured by the length of their telomeres, is older or younger than their actual chronological age.
CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida: Astronauts aboard the International Space Station prepared to install a $2 billion particle detector outside the orbiting outpost after shuttle Endeavour arrived on Wednesday on NASA’s next-to-last shuttle mission. Endeavour’s two-day trip to the station ended at 6:14 a.m. EDT as the spacecraft docked, bringing shuttle commander Mark Kelly back to the installation for the first time since June 2008, his last previous trip.
In this column, you have said that the Venus spins in the reverse direction because of an impact or collision by a big object or planet in the past. Now, the journal Nature has reported that scientists have discovered more than 500 planets, most of which are spinning in the same way the stars spin but some of which are also spinning in the reverse. The planet Venus is near the Sun and the other discovered planets, which have reverse spin, are also near the Sun. How did these planets develop reverse tilt orientation by an impact or collision?
