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Psilocybin Decelerates Cellular Senescence

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Re: Psilocybin Decelerates Cellular Senescence

#5

Post by dist-epoch »

As in all things biology, that's not necessarily a good thing, otherwise we would have evolved it already. Surely there are downsides (cancer, ...)

> it has been suggested that cellular senescence evolved as a way to prevent the onset and spread of cancer. Somatic cells that have divided many times will have accumulated DNA mutations and would be more susceptible to becoming cancerous if cell division continued. As such, it is becoming apparent that senescent cells undergo conversion to an immunologic phenotype that enables them to be eliminated by the immune system.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cellular_senescence

Put otherwise, there is no free lunch. Just compromises.

Re: Psilocybin Decelerates Cellular Senescence

#6

Post by _nhynes »

This study has some nice data in it, but they didn't really start with a very strong hypothesis, to my understanding. The paper starts with a citation about stress being inversely associated with telomere length, and proposes that psilocybin decreases psychological stress, but then goes on to demonstrate decreases in entirely different in vitro physiological stress markers. How is one to tell that this isn't just cherry-picking dependent variables that look good?

Re: Psilocybin Decelerates Cellular Senescence

#7

Post by scotty79 »

dist-epoch wrote: post #5

As in all things biology, that's not necessarily a good thing, otherwise we would have evolved it already. Surely there are downsides (cancer, ...) > it has been suggested that cellular senescence evolved as a way to prevent the onset and spread of cancer. Somatic cells that have divided many times will have accumulated DNA mutations and would be more susceptible to becoming cancerous if cell division continued. As s…

I don't know. Evolution doesn't seem to optimize for longer lifespans. So it would not optimize for substances that aid it.

Long lifespan is usually not in the interest of the species. While it's very much in the interest of individual and worth pursuing.

Re: Psilocybin Decelerates Cellular Senescence

#8

Post by dist-epoch »

scotty79 wrote: post #7
dist-epoch wrote: post #5

As in all things biology, that's not necessarily a good thing, otherwise we would have evolved it already. Surely there are downsides (cancer, ...) > it has been suggested that cellular senescence evolved as a way to prevent the onset and spread of cancer. Somatic cells that have divided many times will have accumulated DNA mutations and would be more susceptible to becoming cancerous if cell division continued. As s…

I don't know. Evolution doesn't seem to optimize for longer lifespans. So it would not optimize for substances that aid it. Long lifespan is usually not in the interest of the species. While it's very much in the interest of individual and worth pursuing.

You are correct. But it's also a probability distribution game. Increase probability to get cancer at advanced age, you will also increase it (maybe just a bit) for the younger population.

Re: Psilocybin Decelerates Cellular Senescence

#9

Post by amts »

scotty79 wrote: post #7
dist-epoch wrote: post #5

As in all things biology, that's not necessarily a good thing, otherwise we would have evolved it already. Surely there are downsides (cancer, ...) > it has been suggested that cellular senescence evolved as a way to prevent the onset and spread of cancer. Somatic cells that have divided many times will have accumulated DNA mutations and would be more susceptible to becoming cancerous if cell division continued. As s…

I don't know. Evolution doesn't seem to optimize for longer lifespans. So it would not optimize for substances that aid it. Long lifespan is usually not in the interest of the species. While it's very much in the interest of individual and worth pursuing.

>>Evolution doesn't seem to optimize for longer lifespans.

Not quite true (if not weighting high on optimization). There are multiple species which are outliers by lifespan in their niches: whales, hydras, etc. Even within rodent family there is a wide range of lifespans typical for a species - from ~2 years for a mouse to ~30 years for a naked mole rat.

There are regenerative species with incredibly messy genomes which are biologically immortal. So relying on evolution as a main explanatory principle is not comprehensive enough (especially given that you can't currently reverse engineer much of the evolution subjects).

Re: Psilocybin Decelerates Cellular Senescence

#10

Post by amts »

_nhynes wrote: post #6

This study has some nice data in it, but they didn't really start with a very strong hypothesis, to my understanding. The paper starts with a citation about stress being inversely associated with telomere length, and proposes that psilocybin decreases psychological stress, but then goes on to demonstrate decreases in entirely different in vitro physiological stress markers. How is one to tell that this isn't just che…

State of senescence in cells can also be caused by mechanical stress [1], this is the basis of senescent cell formation in osteoarthritis etc. So maybe psilocybin is somehow generalizing.

[1]. https://www.ihmc.us/stemtalk/episode-122/ (47:30)

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