Do You Really Want to Live Forever? - Forever Young: A Multifaceted Analysis of Molecular, Environmental and Genetic Factors that Contribute to Healthy Aging and Exceptional Longevity

Abstract

The area of longevity research has skyrocketed within the past few decades, thereby creating an unprecedented narrative for the process of aging, and science’s ability to impact this process. With regard to the field of longevity, it is important to analyze the distinction between lifespan, which is the amount of time one lives, and healthspan, which is the amount of time that one lives while remaining relatively healthy. Throughout previous centuries these two aspects of the human condition developed alongside one another, as the relatively healthy individuals within a society were able to outlive the less healthy individuals. More recently a disparity between the two has developed, causing an increase in global lifespan without the respective increase in population healthspan. This can be due to medical intervention delaying morbidity of many chronic aging related diseases such as heart disease and cancer. The field of longevity is attempting to resolve this lagging behind of the global healthspan by addressing the multiple aspects that affect the healthy aging process, including the role that genetic and environmental factors contribute to senescent changes.¶ This paper attempts to analyze genetic and environmental factors that have been previously correlated to healthy aging, as well as understand how the interplay between the two leads to gene expression, and thereby the molecular impact of aging. Furthermore, NAD+ dependent deacetylases have been previously shown to have a strong impact on the healthy aging process, and when environmental factors influence the genetic expression of these molecules, individuals may present with exceptional cases of longevity. The molecular research discussed in this paper is studying the protein Sirtuin 6, which has been previously correlated with longevity. By further characterizing this protein, we can gain more insight into the role not only of sirtuin in the aging process but more broadly the overall impact of molecular expression on aging.