Extending Life

 Michael - Alternate Thursdays

Extending human life has always been a thorny issue. I’m not talking about exercise and healthy eating habits, but some form of medication. What could that be and, more important, what would be the consequences? Most of the novels and movies that have used this as a premise have focused on a way-out discovery – perhaps in the Amazon, on an isolated island, or somewhere in the Kalahari Desert – where, to this day, a variety of rare and undocumented species exist.

The discovery provides the backstory of the novel, but it’s usually the social, financial, and political implications that provide the substance. In his book, The Trouble with Lichen, John Wyndham explores the discovery of a lichen-like substance, discovered by accident, that causes aging to slow. That's where the story starts. The implications create the backbone of the book. A beautician uses it to do what all beauticians claim to do – to keep your young looks. The fact that her treatments actually work don’t make people happy, certainly not the ones who don’t have it. Some of the ones who do receive it somehow feel hoodwinked. That seems strange, but it’s totally believable. Read the book if you want to know why.

In Dying to Live, we postulated a plant in the Kalahari, known only to the Bushmen, that offered remarkable healing properties and extended life. A Bushman is discovered dead near the Central Kalahari Game Reserve in Africa. Although the man looks old enough to have died of natural causes, the police suspect foul play, and the body is sent to Gaborone for an autopsy. The pathologist is greatly puzzled. Although the man is obviously very old, his internal organs look remarkably young.

That’s the premise, but our story is about the stampede to find and obtain the plant by people for their own ends. The book is actually about greed, not longevity.

When the book came out we often asked people at launch events whether they would be keen to live very much longer that the usual life span. Many didn’t. Maybe there’s a built-in lifespan in our psyches as well as in our bodies. On the other hand, some very rich people have their bodies frozen until the day they can be resuscitated and whatever ails them (even if it’s just old age) can be cured.

In another story, a team of scientists go to study the people and environment of Easter Island (Rapa Nui). They discover a lot of interesting things, but the microbiologist in the group becomes fixated on soil samples that have a surprising lack of fungal life. He observes that the material kills yeast in a petri dish.

Yes, that Easter Island

As the story goes on, the material reaches a laboratory where a team led by a scientist named Sehgal discovers that the active ingredient, which they believe might be a new antibiotic, is actually a byproduct of a bacterium that doesn’t want competition from fungi for the nutrients in the soil. They isolate the material and name it Rapamycin in honor of its original home on Easter Island. While investigating its properties, they discover it produces strong anti-immune reactions. That dangerous side effect spoils its antibiotic properties, the research goes nowhere, and the drug company closes it down.

The twist is that Sehgal then smuggles a sample of the drug from the laboratory to his new home in the US and continues to push the drugs properties. Eventually, the research is restarted, and Rapamycin is approved by the FDA for use in suppressing immune reactions for transplants. But there’s another twist.

In the experiments and trials to obtain that approval, scientists notice that mice being used as test subjects live longer than those in the control group. Subsequent trials indicate that mice may live up to 20% longer when regularly treated with Rapamycin compared to the control group.

So far there isn’t that much interest in the story. The only twist worth a book would be Sehgal smuggling the drug home and carrying on the experimentation. The actual twist (as you’ve probably guessed or already know) is that this isn’t a novel. Not even a novel based on fact, but actual fact. There’s even real science that may explain how the drug works, and that may be the most interesting part. But where is all the greed, the social upheaval, the mad rush of legislation, the crowds mobbing the drug stores? It isn’t there. Is the drug too dangerous to take regularly? It doesn’t seem so, (but it’s early days yet and it can produce significant side effects).

Maybe we already have the Bushman’s longevity drug available for some $100 per month, but no one is really excited? Well not quite. Online “clinics” offer antiaging regimes including use of the drug “off label” i.e. not for its recommended and approved uses. The costs are much higher than the prescription rates. Some subscribers do suffer undesirable side effects under the very lax medical regime of the “clinics”. Do the participants live longer? How do we know? Is this just another Invermectin - a miracle drug against parasites, but with no scientifically established properties against Covid? Or do we really have the prototype of a drug that can extend life?

Would you want to live an extra twenty years?