REVIEW: Aging Is a Simple Deprivation Syndrome Driven by a Quasi-programmed Preventable and Reversible Drift of Control System Set Points Due to Inappropriate Organism—Environment Interaction

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A. V. Khalyavkin^1,2* and V. N. Krutko²

¹Emanuel Institute of Biochemical Physics, Russian Academy of Sciences, 119334 Moscow, Russia; fax: (499) 137-4101; E-mail: antisenesc@mail.ru

²Institute for Systems Analysis, Russian Academy of Sciences, 117312 Moscow, Russia; fax: (499) 783-9132; E-mail: antisenesc@mail.ru

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed.

Received July 14, 2014

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There are two well-known but opposing concepts of the reason for aging. The first supposes that senescence is programmed similarly to the genetic program of development from a zygote up to a mature organism. Genetically determined senile wasting is thought to be associated with the necessity to renovate the population to ensure its adaptation and survival. According to the concept of the stochastic aging (due to accumulation of occasional error and damage), there is no built-in program of aging. There is only a program of development up to the state of maturity, and then the organism should be able to maintain itself limitlessly. However, although the efficiency of repair systems is assumed to be rather high, it is less than 100%. Just this has to result in aging because of accumulation of various errors. We have continued and developed another approach that considers both programmed and stochastic concepts to be incorrect. Aging is a simple deprivation syndrome driven by preventable and even reversible drifts of control systems set points because of an inappropriate “organism—environment” interaction.

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KEY WORDS: plasticity of aging, environmental influences, cause of aging, retardation of senescence, self-maintenance, reversibility of aging

DOI: 10.1134/S0006297914100150

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