Humans may gain eternal life thanks to a major breakthrough in jellyfish research
A group of scientists from a university in Spain managed to solve the mystery behind the jellyfish daughter of the god of death which can at any given moment return to the polyp stage.
Researchers believe that these studies will help cure diseases in humans and may even lead to eternal life in the distant future
not to be missed
09/18/2022
Sunday, September 18, 2022, 11:58 p.m
Share on Facebook
Share on WhatsApp
Share on Twitter
Share by email
Share in general
Comments
Comments
On video: a swarm of jellyfish off the coast of Israel (Photo: Reuters)
Could it be that the formula for eternal life has been hiding all this time with the jellyfish?
A team from the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of Oviedo in Spain studied one of the only creatures on Earth that comes close to being classified as "immortal" - the jellyfish Turritopsis Dohrnii.
The jellyfish also known as the "immortal jellyfish" has the amazing ability to reverse its age and transform back from an adult jellyfish to the polyp stage - the earliest life stage of the organism.
Theoretically, this jellyfish could return to its youth time and time again and never die.
Although most of them die in the wild from disease or when they are eaten in the plankton stage, they are actually the only animal known to us that is able to return to its undeveloped form and grow again.
In a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the scientists took the immortal jellyfish and compared it to another very similar jellyfish without the same "cosmic abilities" (the relative, the Turritopsis rubra).
They sequenced the genome and were able to isolate the exact piece of DNA that the immortal jellyfish uses to revert itself to its younger, flatter version.
Until this study it was not clear what biological mechanisms contribute to their eternal life and now it seems that the researchers have succeeded in opening a door for future studies on the subject.
"This jellyfish is the only metazoan (animal) that is able to renew its cells repeatedly, indicating a state of biological immortality, which challenges our understanding of the aging process. We identified variants and expansions of genes related to replication, DNA repair, telomere maintenance, Redox environment, stem cell population, intercellular communication and reduction of the oxidative cellular environment".
According to a press release issued by the University of Oviedo, all these processes are related to the healthy, or unhealthy, aging of humans.
For those who do not have a broad knowledge of the biological sciences, we will explain that the researchers actually succeeded in finding the part of the DNA that causes the jellyfish to reverse its age (trans-differentiation), as well as which parts it affects - and now they are studying it in depth.
The findings suggest that there is no single thing that allows the immortal jellyfish to avoid death, but that their aging is like a series of locked doors, each of which needs a specific genetic key.
Only if you have the whole set of keys - you can turn back time.
More in Walla!
Between all the shopping and cooking, don't forget the most important thing
In collaboration with Rami Levy
They were also able to find parts of the DNA that are similar to human DNA, which means that the jellyfish may - one day in decades and a lot of research - be used to reverse the aging process in humans.
In the meantime, the researchers hope that a better understanding of how immortal jellyfish control their cellular state could provide a way to deal with diseases associated with aging.
It also reads: "What we have learned about the immortal jellyfish can lead to an extension of life expectancy and, more importantly, to a higher quality of life in old age in humans, but it is unlikely that we will be able to return to our pre-adult stages like they did. Not right now."
health
news
Tags
Jellyfish
The Human Body
dna
