Anti-aging elixir could be hiding in 'indestructible' tardigrades, say ... trends now
Scientists studying the mysterious creatures called tardigrades may have found a new possible tool in their quest to slow human aging.
Sometimes called water bears, the near-microscopic, eight-legged animals can survive conditions that would kill most other forms of life.
That is because they have proteins that form gels inside of cells and slow down life processes down cell damage - and the gel could be an anti-aging elixir.
A team of international researchers introduced tardigrade proteins to human cells in a lab, finding they slowed down and entered a sort of hibernation - just like those in the 'indestructible' creatures.
A team of international researchers introduced tardigrade proteins to human cells in a lab, finding they slowed down and entered a sort of hibernation - just like those in the 'indestructible' creatures
Tardigrades are small, water-dwelling, segmented micro-animals with eight legs that live in damp habitats such as moss or lichen
The new results offer clues for a way to put people's cells or tissues into a form of suspended animation, just like a tardigrade does when it is under stress.
Just two-hundredths of an inch long, tardigrades can survive the immense pressure of the deep sea, extreme high and low temperatures, total dehydration, long-term famine, and even the vacuum and radiation of outer space.
Their secret: a form of suspended animation.
When tardigrades get stressed, their whole body begins to slow down, including on a microscopic level.
They can enter a state called biostasis, where they can tolerate almost complete dehydration for years until water is available again.
Now, scientists have discovered that the proteins that make biostasis possible in tardigrades can have similar effect human cells.
Senior research Scientist Silvia Sanchez-Martinez at the University of Wyoming said: 'Amazingly, when we introduce these proteins into human cells, they gel and slow down metabolism, just like in tardigrades.
'Furthermore, just like tardigrades, when you put human cells that have these proteins into biostasis, they become more resistant to stresses, conferring some of the tardigrades' abilities to the human cells.'
This discovery could mean that tardigrades are an important weapon in the fight against human aging.
If our cells could resist DNA damage from the sun or toxic exposures like tardigrades' cells can, then perhaps the entire aging process could be slowed, the scientists behind the new study have suggested.
More immediately, this discovery means that human stem cells or medicines like blood products for hemophilia that require refrigeration could be shipped without it, expanding access to lifesaving drugs for people in developing countries.
The crucial part of this process is a set of proteins called CAHS, 'intrinsically disordered' proteins that slow down the tardigrade to the point of biostasis.
In biostasis the animal turns into a 'tun,' the name for a dormant tardigrade.
This ability is one of many that enables them to survive extreme conditions.
This image compares one protein that doesn't form gels, lysozyme (top left), to two that do: CAHS D (bottom) and gelatin (top right). Gelatin, the common ingredient in desserts, has a very similar
