
Pill of super-protective 'heavy' fat may treat degenerative diseases - forloop
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22630214.900-pill-of-superprotective-heavy-fat-may-be-key-to-eternal-youth.html?full=true#.VVYBalUza2w
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logfromblammo
Hydrogen, due to its lightness, is very mobile among organic compounds,
especially when its partner has higher electronegativity, like oxygen. You can
think of hydrogen as the scrawny kid that gets pushed around by all the larger
atoms, and oxygen as the bully that always takes his lunch money (the
electron). Whenever the environment is energetic enough to ionize one
hydrogen, the result is like the tea party in Alice in Wonderland. The
hydrogens switch seats, and just end up drinking the same tea out of broken
teacups.

The theory here is that if you make some hydrogens less scrawny (deuterium),
the other atoms will preferentially pick on the lighter hydrogens, avoiding
the destruction of the really important hydrogen-bearing molecules, like the
fats in cell membranes.

Sounds good so far. But what happens when the fat needs to be recycled, or the
deuterium swaps out to a different molecule?

Replacing 50% of a mammal's hydrogen with deuterium will cause the animal to
die, from symptoms resembling radiation sickness, because spindle formation in
mitosis relies upon Van der Waals forces, which are reduced in deuterium-
containing molecules.

We aren't actually sure what else might go wrong in selectively deuterating
the human body. So I think if I needed additional protection from oxidative
damage, I'd try injecting my liver with L-gulonolactone oxidase before eating
heavy fats. I may be wrong. We'll see.

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entee
I actually spoke with one of the principals at the company last weekend. I'm
still not entirely sure it's a real effect, but he was telling me that they
have mouse models that are incredibly impressive. That said, cancer has been
cured in mice many, many times.

The general idea is that if you prevent fatty acid radicals from arising in
the first place, you radically improve cellular health. They argue that all
sorts of things go wrong in a cell, but that the final reason a cell will die
is because it loses the ability to cope with reactive species.

Fats are one major source of radicals, because once you get one radical,
generating the next radical is an auto-catalytic event. That means one radical
generates dozens of others. If you can prevent that single radical, you
therefore have a huge impact, and deuterated are absolutely a way to reduce
radical formation.

2 things on cost: because there is a single bond in the fats they are
targeting that is far more likely to form a radical than the others, you only
need a single position to be deuterated to have the effect. The principal's
claim was that cost of deuterium was incredibly low, and that everything about
the chemistry was scalable. He fully expected that the doses could be made at
an affordable price point.

Like I said, it may not pan out, but it did sound worth pursuing. That safety
study will also likely test efficacy to a certain extent (common in rare
disease research). Could be pretty cool if it works!

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jimrandomh
As always for research at this stage, there is a significant chance that the
treatment will not survive contact with reality. Most don't. That said, the
mechanism is plausible enough, and more importantly, _this is a serious and
direct attack on a major mechanism of aging_. Defeating aging is the most
important thing in the world, and credible shots at doing so are rare and
precious. Regardless of whether this particular therapy ends up working, I
commend the people behind it, Robert Molinari, Mikhail Shchepinov, Robert de
Jager and others.

~~~
DanBC
> Defeating aging is the most important thing in the world,

Hang on, how about climate change, poverty, distribution of food, or war?

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jimrandomh
Those are also important things, but aging kills - and will kill - orders of
magnitude more people than all of those put together.

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pistle
It's a bit early to even crank the bait headline machine up, but I love "Pill
Savior" articles.

Deuterium-containing fatty acids supplant hydrogen-containing in cell
membranes despite heavy fat intake being 1-2% of toatl energy intake.

Sounds like trying to fix joint pain with chondroitin.

This angle of attack on degenerative disease seem likely to be, at best,
modestly effective, yet expensive - like much of the supplement industry.

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DennisP
Part of the treatment is restricting consumption of the fats that would
compete with it. Once it's in place, its stronger bonds might tend to keep it
there.

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RankingMember
Wow. Wouldn't this also significantly reduce the likelihood of cancer?

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thomasfl
Oh no, this could ruin death. Steve Jobs: '... because death is very likely
the single best invention of life. It is life's change agent.'.

Source: [http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2011/oct/06/steve-
jobs...](http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2011/oct/06/steve-jobs-
pancreas-cancer)

~~~
forloop
Software can be changed.

