Recently, we had the opportunity to interview CEO Global Longevity Elina Manzhalii,  a member of  Global Women In Blockchain, a well-known doctor, scientist  and rejuvenation expert.

LiverLongevity (LL) team: Could you describe which major challenges you see in expending life in humans, where exactly we are today, and what scientific problems remain?

Dr Elina Manzhalii: The scientists around  of the the world are looking for drugs for longevity. The developments in science and new technologies inspire confidence in imminent solutions to the problems of radical prolongation of life, and the prevention and treatment of cancer, cirhosis, neurodegenerative diseases, diabet and cardiovascular diseases.

There are potentially massive changes coming to medicine and how we regard aging and treat age-related diseases in the next few decades. With these changes comes the potential for people to live longer and healthier lives thanks to the development of new therapies that directly target the various aging processes in order to delay, prevent, or even reverse age-related diseases. Based on the current pace of technological progress, we assume that therapies that will slow the aging process will be created in the coming years. And in some areas, anti-aging medicine has been successful. Stem cell products, tissue bioprinting program and gene therapies are already here.

The many directions to  genetic engineering (GE) humans include:

• CAR (chimeric antigen receptors )  T cells already in clinical use;
• xenotransplantation currently in preclinical primate trials;
• germline (mostly mt (metallothionein)-GE and two autosomal);
• hundreds of in vivo and ex vivo gene therapies approved and in development

But there are the following problems.  Challenges include testing (long-term) safety and efficacy and bringing down the cost of GE in each of these cases.

LL team: What is your opinion about the tissue bioprinting program?

Dr Elina Manzhalii: In addition we have some bad news about liver tissue bioprinting program. The research company had not generated decisive scientific data supporting the prolonged functionality and therapeutic benefit of its lead therapeutic liver tissue candidate, and that the necessary redevelopment of the tissue would require significant time, additional resources and development risks, and would likely not provide sufficient return from investment. The company is currently looking for alternative projects to take this program’s place.

Other major program involves the printing of kidney tissue. That is a particularly important area for bioprinting, due to the kidney’s lack of any regenerative potential.

Several pharmacological, dietary, and genetic interventions that increase mammalian lifespan are known, but general principles of lifespan extension remain unclear.

The importance of these treatments cannot be overemphasized, since they will lead to an improvement in the state of health and thus lifespan extension.

  There is a huge risk for every single one of us that effective therapies will appear too late. It would be the greatest tragedy not to live to see the introduction of lifespan-extension therapy, and we are counting years here.

LL team: Do you share the view that centenarians have a «protective» gene variants that contribute to their longevity and resistance to disease? 

Dr Elina Manzhalii: I share this view in part. It is important to identify which genes give this unique advantage, as well as to understand what and how it controls the lifespan of a person at the genetic level. This is not so easy. So for example, a study by sequencing the genome of 17 centenarians aged 110 years and older did not reveal significant reliable evidence of enrichment of the genome of centenarians with rare genetic variants of proteins that would distinguish them from ordinary people.

LL team: What is your opinion about geroprotectors or anti-aging drugs?

Dr Elina Manzhalii: The founder of scientific “gerontology” is famous Russian and French biologist and Nobel laureate Ilya Mechnikov, who first used the term “geroprotector” . The literal translation of «geroprotector» is «protecting against aging». From the initial determination, the primary criterion of geroprotector is the ability to increase the lifespan of model organisms. Anti-aging drugs discovery is a popular trend .  Many compounds are knoun that can slow aging and increase the lifespan of humans with age — related diseases.

LL team: Is anti-aging new drug discovery becoming a reality?

Dr Elina Manzhalii: The anti-aging drug discovery is reality in the nearest future.  The problems concerning anti-aging drug discovery discovery may be related to the lack of a unified concept of aging mechanisms, the problem of translation of geroprotectors studies results from model organisms to humans, low level of interest from big pharma since aging has no status as a disease.

LL team: I know that you are using anti-aging drugs in your practice; can you give us some examples

Dr Elina Manzhalii: This group of anti-aging drugs includes: sirtuins, hormetins,  senolitics, stem cells, neurotropic substances; hormones (growth hormone, thyroid hormones, adrenocortical hormones, sex hormones and contraceptives, melatonin and peptides of pineal gland);  antidiabetic agents;  immunomodulators;  mimetics of caloric restriction;  entero-sorbents;  compounds that attenuate the formation of advanced glycation end products;  anti-amyloid agents, activators of telomerase, peptide drugs and  sulforaphane, , glucosamine, biologically active tripeptide GHK (glycyl-L-histidyl-L-lysine), actovegini, resveratrol, lipoic acid, minerals, aminoacids, chelating agents and others. No secondary effects. The  my rejuvenation program includes only natural products.

LL team: Tell me, how can potential patients and all comers practically benefit from all your latest scientific and research developments and results? How can they get true professional advice?

We take into account the fact that biohackers, bloggers, instructors and others who do not have medical training and do not have really recognized scientific and professional achievements in this field are currently dealing with longevity problems.

Dr Elina Manzhalii: Firstly, I would like to note that all high-quality research activities in the field of longevity require serious financial investments, and the return on these investments has a long history. This success of  the scientific and practical cycle with the participation of scientists, biologists, geneticists, doctors highly possible only with the full understanding the depth of the investor and the importance of addressing the problem of longevity.

There are more and more examples of such understanding in the world: high-quality scientific and practical clinics working on the problems of longevity have opened and are successfully working in Germany, Spain, South Korea, and Israel. In Eastern Europe, a striking example of this trend is the Kiyv Grace Clinic (https://www.grace-clinics.com/en), where, thanks to the investor’s quality work, a highly professional team of scientists and doctors has been created. Clinic doctors can effectively solve the issues of longevity, beauty and rejuvenation.

LL team: So what is the solution to the problem right now?

Dr Elina Manzhalii: Mankind needs to apply knowledge on how to extend life qualitatively now. People want to be slim, healthy and beautiful right now in real time. And do not wait for the completion of clinical trials in 20 or more years. Our goal is to speed up the process. The solution to the problem is the Global Longevity project.

Global Longevity, just solves the issue of using all the components of longevity already here and now in real time. This unification of all known factors for people who contribute to the maximum longevity. The Project we have focused on the solve of the main problems that significantly affect life expectancy.

LL team: Can you briefly explain about your project Global Longevity?

Dr Elina Manzhalii:  Global Longevity is a decentralized and scalable ecosystem that creates a full spectrum of living conditions for quality longevity. It uses all the latest achievements of global science and works on the IT platform for the personalized management of life span based on blockchain, neural networks and machine learning.

The mission of Global Longevity is to give people a real opportunity to extend their lives through the use of the advanced longevity technology.

Global Longevity is an ecosystem, a marketplace and a community of users, where technologies will be developed by joint efforts using its own IT platform.

Global Longevity is the world’s first healthy-living and longevity platform and technological ecosystem designed and built by experts in the field of healthy longevity.

Global Longevity is a decentralized, regenerative medical and scientific project that focuses on preventing age-related diseases and improving the quality of life.

Areas of the Global Longevity Project:

1) Liver and Longevity. From fatty liver disease to cirrhosis. Ways of solving.

2) Brain aging, brain aging rate, prevention of the development of encephalopathy and cerebrovascular diseases.

3) Determination of signal biomarkers in the homogenate of the brain and blood.

4) Violation of neural connections and the speed of biochemical processes in them.

5) The effectiveness of drugs and physical methods in violation of brain function for the prevention of aging.

6) The action of pathogenic microorganisms on the aging process of the skin and the correction of skin changes with special bacteria

The innovative symbiosis of the Global Longevity ecosystem and its IT platform make our project unique.

1. The main economic favorable condition is the availability of all citizens in the country to innovative technologies.
2. To spend more time or purchase housing in ecologically clean areas with access to natural clean products and the possibility of expanding physical activity without vehicles. Minimize stress and overload, use of  meditation, respect each other, love people, animals and the environment, constantly improve yourself and learn.
3. High longevity biotechnology should be widely applied in practice.
4. The basic rule is to control your life expectancy using the supervision and recommendations of anti-age professionals and experts who will not only prescribe you need examinations for longevity markers, but also correctly evaluate and correct them. Particular attention should be paid to the longevity of the gastrointestinal tract, especially the liver.

LL team: Why do you think that it is liver health that plays a key role in longevity?

Dr Elina Manzhalii: The liver is one of the most important organs that affects life expectancy. People who have an unhealthy liver look older by 10-15 years.  Liver diseases increase the risk of serious illness. The liver is the largest internal organ in the human body and its proper function is indispensable for many critical metabolic functions, including the regulation of lipid and sugar metabolism, the production of important proteins, including those involved in blood clotting, and purification of blood. Understanding of liver regeneration may shed light on the development of cancer within the cirrhotic liver.

There are over 100 described diseases of the liver, and because of its many functions, these can be highly debilitating and life-threatening unless effectively treated.

Many people with active liver disease remain undiagnosed largely because liver disease patients are often asymptomatic for many years.

As recognition of fatty liver disease and non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) as a true global health crisis rises the need to curate and  emergency treat the disease in a timely fashion grows as well.  According to the European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL), 29 million Europeans have chronic liver disease, and liver disease represents approximately two percent of deaths annually.

Telomeres consist of repeat DNA sequences located at the terminal portion of chromosomes that shorten during mitosis, protecting the tips of chromosomes. During chronic degenerative conditions associated with high cell replication rate, progressive telomere attrition is accentuated, favoring senescence and genomic instability. Several lines of evidence suggest that this process is involved in liver disease progression:

• telomere shortening and alterations in the expression of proteins protecting the telomere are associated with cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma;
• advanced liver damage is a feature of a spectrum of genetic diseases impairing telomere function, and inactivating germline mutations in the telomerase complex;
• experimental models suggest that telomerase protects from liver fibrosis progression.

Genetic data indicate that NAFLD is commonly observed in patients with telomeropathies, suggesting that steatosis may either be a consequence of hepatocellular senescence, as also observed in animal models, or a trigger for liver disease progression. The role of ageing in liver fibrosis progression has been largely demonstrated, and older age and duration of liver disease remain the major and more validated risk factors for liver disease progression, together with male gender and alcohol abuse.

Cellular ageing is generally referred to as replicative senescence, a condition strictly linked to telomerase and telomere biology. Indeed, telomere shortening limited the replicative capacity of cells and the number of cells participating in tissue regeneration. Thus, the regenerative potential of an organ depends on the size of the population of cells with sufficient telomere reserves required for cell proliferation. Consistently, in chronic disease associated with tissue regeneration, such as cirrhosis, an elevated regenerative pressure is generated on the proliferating subpopulation of cells, which undergoes several rounds of cell division that, in turn, accelerate the rate of telomere shortening.

The role of telomere attrition may be particularly relevant in the progression of nonalcoholic fatty liver, an emerging cause of advanced liver disease. Modulation of telomerase or shelterins may be exploited to prevent liver disease progression, and to define specific treatments for different stages of liver disease.

       Thus, following the technology developed by Global Longevity, we can now use events to increase life expectancy with the best health and a clear mind and with a beautiful body.  This unification and use of all known and available scientific facts that contribute to the maximum quality of longevity.