The Basics of Biogerontology

Aging is an enormously complicated process. Despite a great many of theories (among them “Program Theories”, “Combined Theories”, “Damage Theories”, “Inflamm-Aging”, “Garb-Aging” and the “Rising Deleteriome”), so far there is none which is able to explain this phenomenon satisfactorily and completely. A different approach to address the complexity of aging is to characterize the major “telomere(definition) attrition, cellular senescence(definition))." style="text-decoration:underline dotted; text-underline-offset:2px; cursor:help;">Hallmarks of Aging(definition)”. These are genomic instability, telomere attrition, epigenetic alterations, loss of proteostasis(definition), deregulated nutrient sensing, mitochondrial dysfunction(definition), cellular senescence, stem cell exhaustion and an altered intercellular communication. From research on these hallmarks, new avenues were opened on how to interfere with the aging process. Some of these possible therapeutic interventions are described here too.