
Mice treated with a protein from umbilical cord plasma showed improved memory - car
http://www.nature.com/news/young-human-blood-makes-old-mice-smarter-1.21848
======
ericjang
I'm reminded of this famous historical figure who inspired numerous vampire
stories.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_B%C3%A1thory](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_B%C3%A1thory)

~~~
mrkgnao
And a black metal band, if memory serves.

------
aleem
It's apparently a thing now.

Peter Thiel has purportedly invested millions in anti-aging. A company called
Ambriosa in particular matches older people with younger people for blood
routine blood transfusions.

While this study may or may not work with humans, the Ambriosa project does
seem to have legs.

~~~
tacomonstrous
Nothing could possibly go wrong with this plan.

~~~
slv77
"And there once was a generation so selfish they even harvested the blood of
their own children to prolong their own lives."

"Grandma, you're telling stories again. That couldn't possibly be true!"

"I swear on my husbands grave that it was true! They even levied a tax on them
and made them pay for the treatment."

~~~
nojvek
We are all equal but some are more equal than others. Those who are more equal
have more money therefore they can officially buy bodies and rent their blood
to others.

------
ronilan
So, it's like a real life "Flowers for Algernon". Let's hope for a better
ending.

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flowers_for_Algernon](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flowers_for_Algernon)

~~~
erickj
more like Flowers for Dracula

------
nopinsight
Can young animal blood also make old humans smarter (sheep, goats, pigs, ...)?

If so, and without adverse effects [1], an opportunity is discovered. Human
cells might be better but a protein from animals might be cheaper and less
ethically challenged, thus more accessible to the masses.

[1] An expert please have a say whether that is plausible or not.

~~~
crusso
Maybe, like in the mice studies, we could just graft baby goats to our backs
after we hit 50.

Sure, it will look odd, but that will just be the price to pay to stay young.

The real trick will be to keep the goats from chewing on your shirt collars.

~~~
CleaveIt2Beaver
I feel like this is the entry point to a new piece of dark speculative
fiction, in which extreme age is venerated, and the number of goats attached
to your back becomes a symbol of your wealth and power.

~~~
throwaway55523
Perhaps a larger animal. Detachable coupling of course and some sort of
programmatic control of the beast. The coupling would include devices which
would increase the concentration of life giving material and turn back less
desirable properties of the blood.

I would ride upon a great blood engorged elephant and take pity upon all the
unwashed goat tethered masses.

~~~
jonnathanson
I storm through the seas like Poseidon himself, a conquering champion, grafted
to the back of a 24-foot baby blue whale. Next time around, though, I'll ask
the doc to position me _in front of_ the blow hole. Rookie mistake.

------
leecarraher
I generally trust Nature, but unfortunately i can only access what appears to
be more of an abstract, but i hope it addresses the concerns of
[http://news.berkeley.edu/2016/11/22/young-blood-does-not-
rev...](http://news.berkeley.edu/2016/11/22/young-blood-does-not-reverse-
aging-in-old-mice-uc-berkeley-study-finds/) and similar research suggesting
these claims could be anomalies.

~~~
apathy
> I generally trust Nature

That's your first mistake. Don't take my word for it:

[http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v483/n7391/fig_tab/4835...](http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v483/n7391/fig_tab/483531a_T1.html)

Glamor journals are glamorous because of their "impact" (people read and cite
them), and that "impact" occurs because they publish sexy (not necessarily
replicable or useful) findings. Note that Nature is not a bad actor _per se_ ,
and in fact their editors have completely destroyed my lack of faith in peer
review lately (as an author). But the incentives for CNS journals skew in
favor of "sexy" rather than "scientific", and the general tendency of NIH to
fund "sexy" means that almost all research in glamor journals must be treated
as suspect until replicated, ideally in a clinical trial or by an un-
incentivized third party lab.

> I can only access what appears to be more of an abstract

There's a site called [http://sci-hub.bz/](http://sci-hub.bz/) that can help.

> these claims could be anomalies.

You are correct, and you should heed your instincts. Extraordinary claims
require extraordinary evidence, and a single experiment or replication is one
(possibly quite principled) sample from a distribution of potential outcomes.
Don't invest yet ;-)

Side note: it seems like numeracy and statistical thinking is becoming the
default in an educated population. You, too, are destroying my lack of faith
in humanity. Thanks.

~~~
apathy
nb. Here is the link to the article:

[http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/natu...](http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature22067.html)

Here are the figures:

[http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/fig_tab/n...](http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/fig_tab/nature22067_ft.html)

If you need a fulltext link that can be arranged, but it's not a bad idea to
understand how DOIs work. Here is one:

doi:10.1038/nature22067

This is essentially a URI; the piece after the : is a URN, which is meant to
uniquely identify a piece of published research (now expanded to include
preprints and software).

To route it, you'll need a URL which your browser can resolve. Happily, if you
visit

[http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature22067](http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature22067)

you will return to the paper. It is meant to provide a durable identifier, so
that even Elsevier journals can't reliably hide the identity of a publication.
What this also means is that "unlocking" services like Elbakyan's can use it
as a primary key. Suppose you paste the URN part of that DOI onto [http://sci-
hub.cc/](http://sci-hub.cc/) or [http://sci-hub.bz/](http://sci-hub.bz/) to
complete the URL. What do you suppose happens?

(This is left as an exercise for the reader, and of course I cannot and do not
condone violations of copyright law. So don't read whatever might pop up, ok?)

------
novalis78
Interesting study in this regard: Michigan State University, East Lansing:
Modulation of mammary gland development in pre-pubertal mice as affected by
soya and milk protein supplements. [1] - Makes me wonder if there is a
connection between the young mice and the milk they get from their mothers
"isolated form of bovine alpha-lactalbumin commercially available. Alpha-
lactalbumin is the primary protein in human milk, and is therefore extremely
important for infant nutrition."

[1]
[https://books.google.com/books?id=XLy5ZQVwPbcC&pg=PA24&lpg=P...](https://books.google.com/books?id=XLy5ZQVwPbcC&pg=PA24&lpg=PA24&dq=TIMP2+supplement&source=bl&ots=CvFhpTzfOc&sig=RkW7kJgLFJcdZHEeuWwwNC8uJEU&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjEtZaghLbTAhWFNiYKHUIkDvg4ChDoAQg7MAY#v=onepage&q=TIMP2%20supplement&f=false)

[2][http://www.sovereignhealthinitiative.org/articles/antiaging....](http://www.sovereignhealthinitiative.org/articles/antiaging.html)

[3][http://www.daviscofoods.com/specialty/alpha.html](http://www.daviscofoods.com/specialty/alpha.html)

------
LinuxBender
Where can I get some disease-free youngling blood?

------
amykhar
Why does this totally make of me think of the book (and movie) The Glow?

[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0286653/](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0286653/)

------
paulajohnson
The Rats of NIMH?
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mrs._Frisby_and_the_Rats_of_NI...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mrs._Frisby_and_the_Rats_of_NIMH)

------
nvus
Instead of ape apocalypse, rat apocalypse :))

------
wiradikusuma
should we start worrying people getting pregnant just to be harvested
(voluntarily or not, for themselves or for sale)?

~~~
alpb
Listen to NPR's story for contemporary opinions against how this might not
work for humans. [http://www.npr.org/sections/health-
shots/2017/04/19/52397584...](http://www.npr.org/sections/health-
shots/2017/04/19/523975844/human-umbilical-cord-blood-helps-aging-mice-
remember-study-finds)

------
leojg
And so the mice vampires rise and conquer the world!

------
tzakrajs
Great news for Peter Thiel!

------
car
tl;dr: found that human umbilical cord plasma (= blood minus cells) improves
old mice brain function (plasticity, memory), then teased out which protein in
the cord plasma seems to have this effect (TIMP2) and showed that it is
actively transported across blood-brain barrier (by marking it radioactively).

Since this worked across species barriers, it can be speculated that a similar
effect would be seen when administering TIMP2 in humans. It'll be exciting to
see what comes of clinical studies, which are under way.

[EDIT]:tone down expectations

~~~
AstralStorm
Then efficacy, safety and long term safety have to be verified.

Apparently it is nowhere near as clear cut as expected. See the NPR article
linked below.

~~~
f4rker
Npr is not a great news source

~~~
maguirre
how come?

~~~
mannykannot
A paucity of alternative facts, perhaps?

~~~
epmaybe
Are you saying that NPR doesn't have many alternative facts?

I think the point the original comment was trying to make was more that NPR
doesn't have much in depth coverage when it comes to science. You'll think NPR
does an exemplary job when it comes to content you don't know much about. But
when you're more knowledgeable about the field being covered, you start to see
minor inaccuracies to "dumb down" the concepts.

Which isn't a bad thing necessarily, it gets the point across without being
too wrong.

~~~
mannykannot
You are speculating as much as I am about what f4ker's cryptic and
uninformative post actually meant. If he meant what you think he meant, he
could simply have written a note about what, specifically, in the NPR article
is simplistic.

I do not see any way around news sources being simplified, to some extent,
about everything, and you appear to agree. Do you think NPR's news is notably
"not great" in that regard? Its liberal bias shows, but not in a way that
strikes me as deceptive.

~~~
epmaybe
I'm not the authority on journalism by any means, but I'm happy to provide my
own take.

There have been some stories on NPR (and most news sites as far as I can tell)
that I've felt more knowledgeable about, and realized things were being
simplified to make it easier to digest.

I guess another way of putting it would be that at first glance, you think NPR
is awesome, and does a great job of covering the news. But then at second
glance, you realize that while not intentional, it's just not as detailed or
complete as you'd like it to be.

------
agumonkey
The vampire myth is getting some fresh blood too.

------
s_kilk
Don't let Thiel hear about this.

------
nithinm
So vampires have more IQ than humans? I should reconsider becoming a vampire
hunter.

------
filomeno
Well, this is really not news. I knew about this for the first time in a
documentary called "Monkey Shines", from 1988 ;-)

------
smokinhotdaisy
Sound to me they finally found the fountain of youth. hehhe

