Follow along with the video below to see how to install our site as a web app on your home screen.
Note: This feature currently requires accessing the site using the built-in Safari browser.
A forever young drug that allows people to grow old gracefully could soon be a reality. Durham University scientists have found a way of slowing down ageing in individual cells. They believe their work could help the elderly stay healthy well into their twilight years, as well as help children with a rare condition that causes them to grow old before their time. Researcher Chris Hutchison said: The findings are at a very early stage but they show the potential for helping people live more comfortable and less painful lives when they reach 70 or 80 years of age and beyond.
The professor used a drug to slow the ageing of cells taken from children with Hutchinson Gilford Progeria Syndrome (HGPS). This is a rare genetic condition in which huge amounts of DNA damage cause cells to quickly age and die. As a result, babies rapidly grow old and frail before dying of old age between the age of eight and 21. Hayley Okines, from Bexhill, East Sussex, is known for spreading awareness of the condition, also known as progeria. In January, she was 13 - an age she was not expected to reach. Diagnosed in 1999, her condition causes her to age eight times faster than the average person.
Some people have speculated that the author F. Scott Fitzgerald based his story The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button on HGPS. Treating cells with a drug normally given to people who have taken paracetamol overdoses slowed down the ageing process, allowing them to grow normally. It is hoped that the drug, N-acetyl cysteine, can one day be used to treat HGPS, improving the quality of life for children. But with many of the problems of HGPS, such as hardening of the arteries, stiffness of the joints and hip dislocations, also present in normal ageing, it might have a much more general use.
While the drug may not help people live longer, it could make a persons later years more pleasant. Professor Hutchison said: Our findings could be an important step to helping both children with progeria and older people to live lives that are less debilitating in terms of health problems. Professor James Goodwin, of charity Age UK, said the research offers valuable insights into the ageing process. He added: Although its fantastic that people are living longer than ever, we know that on average men can expect to live 7.4 years and women 9 years at the end of their lives with a disability. To mitigate the years we spend in ill health, it is clear that one of the most promising areas of research centres on slowing down the ageing process and tackling age-related illness. The approach is not the only one that holds promise.
MORE
A four-year-old boy resembles an 80-year-old pensioner due to an incredibly rare condition. Bayezid Hossain, from outside Magura, southern Bangladesh, suffers a swollen face, hollow eyes, sagging skin, aching joints, difficulties passing urine and already has weak and broken teeth. People in the community stay away from him and children are afraid to play with him, despite him having above average intelligence. Bayezid is believed to suffer from progeria, which ages the body at eight times the normal rate. The disorder is said to have inspired the F Scott Fitzgerald novel and Brad Pitt movie The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, in which the character is born an old man and ages backwards.
Bayezid Hossain, from southern Bangladesh is only four years old but resembles an old man due to a rare ageing disease
Progeria patients normally die from heart attacks or strokes at an average age of 13. Bayezid also has a form of cutis laxa, a rare connective tissue disorder in which the skin hangs loosely in folds. His 18-year-old mother, Tripti Khatun, says she is amazed at how clever her son is, but it breaks her heart that his appearance is so unusual. She said: ‘Bayezid only learned to walk aged three but he had a full set of teeth at three months old. 'His physical growth is completely abnormal but mentally, he has wonderful conversation, very aware and is very intuitive for his age. 'He does not look like other children. He looks like an old man. As a first time mother I can’t bear the pain of seeing my child like this.’
His mother Tripti is heartbroken at her son's unusual appearance. She said: 'He does not look like other children. He looks like an old man. As a first time mother I can’t bear the pain of seeing my child like this'
When Bayezid was born at a government maternity hospital, in 2012, Tripti and her husband Lovelu Hossain, 22, were devastated as doctors had no idea how to treat him. Tripti said: ‘I was terrified to see him when he was born. He was just flesh and bones. He looked like an alien and it was heartbreaking for me. 'Doctors had no idea what to do, they said they had never seen such a baby. They warned us that there was nothing they could do.’ After they returned home the news of their abnormal child quickly spread around the village and neighbours lined up outside the family's home to see him. But Tripti and her husband said they received no support from the local community.
'He understands his condition but he doesn’t like to talk about it. He just cries when he feels awkward,' Tripti said about her son
People feared being close to Bayezid and often gossiped about the couple’s capabilities as parents, as Tripti and Lovelu are first cousins. In rural parts of Bangladesh and southern Asia it is normal practice for cousins to marry, and the pair tied the knot at 13 years old. The couple now live with Lovelu’s parents, grandfather Hashem Shikdar, 50, and grandmother Ayesha Begum, 40. As Bayezid grew older both his personality and body developed much faster than other children in his village. Tripti added: ‘He’s very stubborn and knows what he wants, and he gets very impatient. But he’s playful, his mind is very sharp, and he’s full of conversation.’ As time has passed his neighbours have slowly gotten used to his presence and have now fondly tagged him the ‘old man’.
MORE
