A blood factor can rejuvenate the aging brain

[pvg]

Just discussed here

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37163684 (123 comments)

[irtefa]

Remarkable that a single blood factor can have such a big impact on brain inflammation, plasticity, and cognition. Curious if PF4 levels naturally decline with age or if other factors cause the drop?

[quickthrower2]

Is exercise enough then?

[stevenwoo]

Yes but they really ought to do this study with people before we all go out and exercise :).

[bitwize]

You really need to combine exercise with a blood boy for the best effects.

[msie]

Let's goooooo! Inject some of that into humans and see what happens!!!!

[GolfPopper]

"Research led by two teams from the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) and a team from the University of Queensland, Australia, has identified a blood factor as the common denominator behind rejuvenation of the brain through young blood transfusion, a longevity hormone and exercise."

Musk, Thiel, and their ilk are going to put us in Bug Jack Barron territory before the end of the decade, aren't they?

[photochemsyn]

Well, it would make a lot more sense for the wealthy class to have their own stem cells harvested at a young age then cryogenically store those stem cells and use them to seed artificial blood generation systems.

From this perspective, things look different. i.e. less sinister. A holy grail of biomedical genetics is the ability to create whole blood - white cells and all - from a patient's stem cells, as that would eliminate the need for blood transfusions as well as all problems related to any kind of incompatibility. Still seems to be a ways off, as blood generation is another one of those ridiculously complicated biological systems, and is also closely interwoven with the immune system (since pathogens tend to show up and spread via the bloodstream).

Now, maybe the easiest way to do this is with 'Dolly the Sheep' tactics, meaning wealthy people would create clones of themselves and then harvest blood and organs from those clones, as in at least one dystopian movie.

[throwuwu]

Or just program some bacteria to produce the compound in question like we do for everything else.

[catchnear4321]

that seems rather optimistic. more like plasma center/day care in low income neighborhoods.

would you blame a parent for taking their kid somewhere that gave them a good education, fed them well, and paid you, for just a little bit of their excess life force? you gotta weigh the pros and cons together. one man’s college education is another man’s immortality. everyone wins, just, not everyone wins as much.

[Arrath]

By whispers you mean the insane ravings of terminally online madmen.

[nico]

So like vampires? Do vampires typically drink the blood or transfuse it to their bloodstream through their teeth?

[LinuxBender]

Vampire bats create a slit in the ankles of sleeping livestock and lick the wound. Their saliva contains an anticoagulant that keeps the wound bleeding. Humanoid vampires are not real despite the goth look still being a thing unless you are referring to the group of people that transfuse blood from young people for a lot of money which I suspect is a scam due to the short life of blood cells especially when stored outside of a human.