No doubt we will soon be seeing “Naked Mole Rats are Immortal – Are Humans Next?” headlines from the more clueless breeds of science writers. But that should’t obscure just how interesting and important this result is.
Virtually all creatures age – that is, they show declines in function which increase their probability of dying as they get older. Humans are no exception:
Your chance of dying in a given year is about 1% when you are 50; by 80 it is close to 10%.
By this definition, naked mole rats don’t age. Not for a long, long time (by rodent standards) anyway:
From Naked mole-rat mortality rates defy Gompertzian laws by not increasing with age
The authors don’t speculate on the factors that make NMRs ageless. We already know that they are strange: they are one of the very few eusocial mammals (humans are another), live up to 30 years in the wild, can go 18 minutes without oxygen, have little or no pain response, and despite their longevity, rarely get cancer. Their ribosomes produce proteins with exceptional fidelity, which could be a factor.
Needless to say, all this has sparked formation of a mostly stealthy startup dedicated to exploiting NMR biology in various ways. I’m sure it won’t be long before rich tech libertarian biohackers switch from injecting themselves with young human blood to young NMR blood. Perhaps they will get a big enough dose of oxytocin to make themselves slightly less psychopathic. One can only hope.
Because this article was published in eLife, the reviewer’s comments are available, and you should read them. It’s clear that the authors were way out over their ski tips initially with respect to interpreting the actual data. The final product is very good though, a prime example of the virtues of collaboration and criticism in science.