Tag: Misha Blagosklonny

No comments

Tribute to Dr. Mikhail (Misha) Blagosklonny

  By , ,
Dr. Mikhail (Misha) Blagosklonny

It is with great sadness and heavy heart that we announce the recent passing of Dr. Mikhail (Misha) V. Blagosklonny, our beloved Editor-in-Chief. Misha succumbed to metastatic lung cancer after a courageous battle.

Dr. Blagosklonny will be remembered as a brilliant and extraordinary scientist who dedicated his life to science. He was a visionary thinker, who made highly original contributions to cancer and aging research that were often ahead of their time. 

Dr. Blagosklonny was born into a family of scientists. His mother, Professor of Medicine Yanina V. Blagosklonnaya, specialized in endocrinology and was a talented teacher, mentoring several generations of medical students. His father, Professor Vladimir M. Dilman, was a brilliant gerontologist, endocrinologist and oncologist, known for being a very charismatic person. He was the first person to encourage Misha to think about nature, aging, and philosophy.

Misha was a theorist by nature. While in school, he was deeply interested in physics and dreamed of becoming a theoretical physicist. Eventually, he chose biology, driven to study aging and age-related diseases, including cancer. He started as an experimentalist, but over the years, he became a theoretical biologist. In a way, his dream came true. 

After earning his MD/PhD in cardiology and experimental medicine from Pavlov First State Medical University of St. Petersburg, Dr. Blagosklonny was awarded a prestigious Fogarty Fellowship from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, MD. During his productive fellowship at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in Dr. Leonard M. Neckers’s laboratory, he co-authored 18 publications in diverse areas of cancer research and was the last author on a clinical phase I/II trial paper. Then, he held a brief but productive senior research fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania in Dr. Wafik S El-Deiry’s laboratory before returning for several years to the NCI, where he collaborated with Dr. Tito Fojo. During those years, Dr. Blagosklonny co-authored over 30 research articles covering various topics in cancer research, including targeting HSP90, p53, Bcl2, Erb2, and Raf-1.

It was also at that time that, as a sole author, he published several experimental and theoretical papers encompassing the most important themes in his scientific career.

The first key theme focused on the selective protection of normal cells during cancer therapy. Despite the dogma, Dr. Blagosklonny showed that drug resistance provides opportunities for protection of non-resistant normal cells with selective killing of drug-resistant cancer cells. The original concept, titled “Drug-resistance enables selective killing of resistant leukemia cells: exploiting of drug resistance instead of reversal,” was published in Leukemia in 1999. The idea was so unconventional that, at first, it was incorrectly cited as “reversal of resistance” instead of “exploiting of resistance.”

The renowned, world famous scientist Dr. Arthur Pardee was so impressed by Dr. Blagosklonny’s idea that he visited the NCI to meet Mikhail, and in 2001 they co-authored the paper “Exploiting cancer cell cycling for selective protection of normal cells.” Later, when Misha launched Oncotarget, Dr. Pardee became one of the journal’s first Founding Editors.

Dr. Blagosklonny continued to develop the concept of normal cells protection in the following years. These are the most essential publications on this topic: 

The second key theme was Dr. Blagosklonny’s innovative research method to generate new knowledge and ideas by synthesizing facts and observations from seemingly unrelated fields. This concept was published in Nature in 2002, titled “Conceptual biology: Unearthing the gems.”

The most significant outcome of this concept was the development of the hyperfunction (or quasi-programmed) theory of aging and the discovery of rapamycin as a potential anti-aging drug. Dr. Blagosklonny first published this idea in 2006, titled “Aging and immortality: quasi-programmed senescence and its pharmacologic inhibition.” Dr. Michael Hall, who discovered the protein TOR (Target of Rapamycin), credited Dr. Blagosklonny for “connecting dots that others don’t even see” in a Scientific American publication.

Dr. Blagosklonny held several faculty positions before joining Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center as Professor of Oncology in 2009, and most recently served there as an adjunct faculty member. In his later years, Dr. Blagosklonny continued to develop his hyperfunction theory of aging and published extensively on the prevention of cellular senescence by rapamycin and other mTOR inhibitors, on cancer (an age-related disease) prevention by slowing down organismal aging, and on combinations of potential anti-aging drugs for use in humans. 

These are just a few essential publications on those topics from more than 200 papers:

Dr. Blagosklonny has published more than 290 papers in peer-reviewed journals, serving as the first, last, or sole author on nearly all of his papers.

Dr. Blagosklonny was also a very passionate editor. He always dreamed of being an editor. It all began in 2002 when he was invited to become an Editor-in-Chief of the journal Cell Cycle, a position he held for more than 16 years.

Understanding the importance of sharing scientific information without borders, he formulated the idea to launch journals for scientists, by scientists. Since cancer and aging research were always the main focus of his scientific interests, Dr. Blagosklonny, in collaboration with his colleagues, founded Aging in 2009 (co-editors-in-chief: the late Judith Campisi and David Sinclair) and Oncotarget in 2010 (co-editor-in-chief: Andrei Gudkov). Both journals are renowned for their outstanding Editorial Boards, innovative approaches, and significant popularity within the scientific community.

In 2012, Dr. Blagosklonny founded Oncoscience, a unique journal that publishes free of charge for both authors and readers. It can be considered a philanthropic endeavor.

In addition, Dr. Blagosklonny has served as an associate editor or a member of the editorial board of such journals as Cancer Research, International Journal of Cancer, Leukemia, Cell Death Differentiation, Cancer Biology & Therapy, American Journal of Pathology, Autophagy, and others.

Misha was a funny and witty person, who always had very interesting and unconventional opinions about various topics and was always looking for the roots of different matters. Everyone who knew him for a long time felt that they grew as a person because of his influence. He realized himself in this life as a scientist, editor, family man and a friend.

Dr. Blagosklonny envisioned his cancer battle as a mission to explore how metastatic cancer can be treated with curative intent. He published several articles about his battle, sharing original ideas and pushing the boundaries of cancer treatment in collaboration with his doctors. In his own words, Dr. Blagosklonny was near-curing of incurable cancer. He was in remission about two years and stayed active until the last days.

Dr. Blagosklonny passed away at his home in Boston, MA.

A special thank you to his colleagues and friends, who continuously supported Misha during his cancer battle: Dr. Tito Fojo, Dr. Wafik El-Deiry, Dr. Andrei Gudkov, Dr. Vadim Gladyshev and Dennis Mangan, to name a few.

He will be deeply missed.

–The entire staff of Impact Journals, LLC

No comments

Dr. Blagosklonny’s Battle With Cancer (Part 1)

  By

“Diagnosed with numerous metastases of lung cancer in my brain in January 2023, I felt compelled to accomplish a mission.”

BUFFALO, NY- January 22, 2024 – On January 3, 2024, Mikhail V. Blagosklonny M.D., Ph.D., from Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center published a new brief report in Oncoscience (Volume 11), entitled, “My battle with cancer. Part 1.”

“In January 2023, diagnosed with numerous metastases of lung cancer in my brain, I felt that I must accomplish a mission. If everything happens for a reason, my cancer, in particular, I must find out how metastatic cancer can be treated with curative intent. This is my mission now, and the reason I was ever born. In January 2023, I understood the meaning of life, of my life. I was born to write this article. In this article, I argue that monotherapy with targeted drugs, even when used in sequence, cannot cure metastatic cancer. However, preemptive combinations of targeted drugs may, in theory, cure incurable cancer. Also, I share insights on various topics, including rapamycin, an anti-aging drug that can delay but not prevent cancer, through my personal journey.”

Read the full paper: DOI: https://doi.org/10.18632/oncoscience.593 

Correspondence to: Mikhail V. Blagosklonny

Emails: [email protected], [email protected]  

Keywords: lung cancer, brain metastases, capmatinib, resistance, MET

About Oncoscience: 

Oncoscience is a peer-reviewed, open-access, traditional journal covering the rapidly growing field of cancer research, especially emergent topics not currently covered by other journals. This journal has a special mission: Freeing oncology from publication cost. It is free for the readers and the authors.

To learn more about Oncoscience, visit Oncoscience.us and connect with us on social media:

For media inquiries, please contact [email protected].

No comments

Dr. Blagosklonny’s Rapamycin-Based Recommendation for Altos Labs

  By
Listen to an audio version of this article

After the January 2022 launch of Altos Labs, a new anti-aging biotechnology company, Mikhail (Misha) Blagosklonny, M.D., Ph.D., joined this exciting public conversation with a recommendation. Dr. Blagosklonny is a prominent scientist in the fields of cancer and aging research. He is well-known for his experimental research articles and theoretical papers on the hyperfunction theory of aging and the pursuit of longevity with rapamycin. On April 22, 2022, his latest research perspective was published in Oncoscience, and entitled, “Altos Labs and the quest for immortality: but can we live longer right now?” 

“Here I discuss how combining rapamycin with other modalities may let us live long enough to benefit from future discoveries in cellular reprogramming and what needs to be done at Altos Labs to make this happen.” (Source: Blagosklonny, 2022)

Altos Labs

Funded by multiple billionaire investors, including Jeff Bezos and Yuri Milner, Altos Labs has announced that their primary focus is on reprogramming cells in the pursuit of reversing the trajectory of many diseases, and thus, reversing aging.

“Altos Labs is a new biotechnology company focused on cellular rejuvenation programming to restore cell health and resilience, with the goal of reversing disease to transform medicine.” (Source: AltosLabs.com)

Altos Labs researchers are aiming to turn back the human aging process by resetting epigenetic clocks within our cells. Cellular rejuvenation programming is a process by which the aging of cells may be reversed, potentially leading to the prevention or reversal of age-related diseases, such as cancer. In animal studies, cellular rejuvenation programming has been shown to lead to improved healthspan and increased lifespan. Researchers at Altos Labs intend to investigate its effects in humans with further research. The process will potentially involve the use of the Yamanaka factors, specialized proteins known as sirtuins and artificial intelligence or machine learning. Implications of successfully developing this technology would be vast, and it could one day lead to a significant extension of the human lifespan.

Dr. Blagosklonny’s Recommendation

Following the public unveiling of this new and highly-funded quest to reverse aging through cellular reprogramming, Dr. Blagosklonny openly chimed in with a perceptive recommendation in his latest research perspective. Given that potential revelations learned from studies at Altos Labs may take years to be brought safely to public markets, Dr. Blagosklonny suggests that research at Altos Labs should also include a deep investigation into rapamycin, a clinically approved mTOR inhibitor. Rapamycin is a promising anti-aging agent that was first clinically approved as an immunosuppressive drug to prevent organ rejection after a kidney transplant. 

“Rapamycin treatment is rapidly becoming a mainstream anti-aging intervention.” (Source: Blagosklonny, 2022)

Dr. Blagosklonny writes that potential life-extension with rapamycin may allow us to slow aging while we await future discoveries that may reverse aging altogether. However, he also writes that treatment with rapamycin alone is unlikely to extend lifespan sufficiently enough to benefit from Altos Labs’ future discoveries within our lifetime. Dr. Blagosklonny urges that discovering efficacious combinations of rapamycin with other therapeutic agents may enable humans today to live long enough to benefit from Altos Labs’ future discoveries in cellular reprogramming.

“If Altos Labs would allocate a small percentage of its funding to develop rapamycin based drug combinations, then additional decades of life extension may be available 3–5 years from now.”

“The number of potential combinations with rapamycin is enormous.” (Source: Blagosklonny, 2022)

Click here to read Dr. Blagosklonny’s full research perspective, published in Oncoscience.

Press release: Altos Labs and the Quest for Immortality: Dr. Blagosklonny’s Perspective.

AGING (AGING-US) VIDEOS: YouTube | LabTube | Aging-US.com

—

Aging (Aging-US) is an open-access journal that publishes research papers bi-monthly in all fields of aging research. These papers are available at no cost to readers on Aging-us.com. Open-access journals have the power to benefit humanity from the inside out by rapidly disseminating information that may be freely shared with researchers, colleagues, family, and friends around the world.

For media inquiries, please contact [email protected].

No comments

Aging Is Easily Treatable

  By

In 2018, Dr. Mikhail Blagosklonny wrote a thought provoking theory article, entitled: “Disease or not, aging is easily treatable.”

Figure 1. Relationship between aging and diseases. When growth is completed, growth-promoting pathways increase cellular and systemic functions and thus drive aging. This is a pre-pre-disease stage, slowly progressing to a pre-disease stage. Eventually, alterations reach clinical disease definition, associated with organ damage, loss of functions (functional decline), rapid deterioration and death.
Figure 1. Relationship between aging and diseases. When growth is completed, growth-promoting pathways increase cellular and systemic functions and thus drive aging. This is a pre-pre-disease stage, slowly progressing to a pre-disease stage. Eventually, alterations reach clinical disease definition, associated with organ damage, loss of functions (functional decline), rapid deterioration and death.

The Top-Performer series highlights papers published by Aging that have generated a high Altmetric attention score. Altmetric scores, located at the top-left of trending Aging papers, provide an at-a-glance indication of the volume and type of online attention the research has received.

Read Aging’s Top 100 Altmetric papers.

—

Listen to an audio version of this article

Would re-classifying aging as an official disease help fuel the anti-aging drug industry? While many sufficient arguments can place aging in this category, Dr. Mikhail Blagosklonny—Editor-in-Chief at Aging, Oncotarget, Oncoscience, and Cell Cycle, and adjunct faculty member at the Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center—believes that classifying aging as a disease is unnecessary and counterproductive.

“It is commonly argued that aging should be defined as a disease so as to accelerate development of anti-aging therapies. This attitude is self-defeating because it allows us to postpone development of anti-aging therapies until aging is pronounced a disease by regulatory bodies, which will not happen soon.”

In 2018, Dr. Blagosklonny wrote a theory article that was published in Aging’s Volume 10, Issue 11, and entitled, “Disease or not, aging is easily treatable.” To date, this top-performing paper has generated an Altmetric Attention score of 54.

“HEALTHY” AGING

In this article, Dr. Blagosklonny emphasizes his theory that human aging is the quasi-programmed continuation of growth and development. He explains that progressive aging later in life results in aberrant systematic hyperfunction, which leads to disease and, eventually, death. 

“Aging is a normal continuation of the normal developmental program, so it is NOT a program but a purposeless, unintended quasi-program [10–16].”

Beginning after the growth process, Dr. Blagosklonny segments the aging process into four stages: pre-pre-disease, pre-disease, clinical disease, and death (see Figure 1). In the early stages of aging, the unseen asymptomatic abnormalities which arise have not yet reached the currently agreed upon clinical definitions of disease. Dr. Blagosklonny explains that “healthy” aging can be interchangeable with “pre-pre-disease” and “pre-disease.”

“‘Healthy’ aging has been called subclinical aging [33], slow aging [18,34] or decelerated aging [35], during which diseases are at the pre-disease or even pre-pre-disease stage.”

TREATING AGING

“Aging is easily treatable.”

Dr. Blagosklonny justifies this instinctually debatable claim simply by pointing out the ways in which humans are already defying aging. Calorie restriction, intermittent fasting, and the ketogenic diet have all been proven to slow aging and extend healthy lifespan. Certain nutrients, conventional drugs, and pharmacological therapies which have shown anti-aging properties include metformin, aspirin, statins, beta-blockers, ACE inhibitors, Angiotensin II receptor blockers (ARB), and (the anti-aging therapy Dr. Blagosklonny is most intrigued by) rapamycin, and other rapalogs. 

“Rapamycin (Rapamune/Sirolimus), an allosteric inhibitor of mTOR complex 1 [63,66], is a natural rapalog as well as the most potent and best studied rapalog.”

Dr. Blagosklonny chronicles numerous studies over the years verifying rapamycin’s life- and health-extending effects in microorganisms, mice, humans, (non-human) primates, and even canines. Read more about the origin and applications of rapamycin.

PREVENTATIVE MEDICINE IS ANTI-AGING

“Gerontologists think of metformin as an anti-aging drug [121–130], and metformin can be combined with rapamycin [131].”

In addition to the use of rapamycin and other anti-aging drugs, current preventative medicine strategies can be seen as anti-aging therapies, and vice versa. Dr. Blagosklonny discusses examples of preventative medicine and anti-aging therapy. In one example, patients who present with pre-diabetic symptoms may be treated with metformin to decrease insulin-resistance in advance, in order to prevent diabetes in the future. This is an example of preventative medicine as an anti-aging therapy.

“Physicians generally do not think of metformin as an anti-aging drug, simply because it is expected that life will be extended, if diseases are prevented.”

CONCLUSION

“Aging does not need to be defined as a disease to be treated.”

In conclusion, Dr. Blagosklonny proposes that “aging can be treated as a pre-disease to prevent its progression to diseases.” He suggests that, to preventatively combat disease brought on by aging, rapamycin and conventional life-extending drugs can be combined with “modestly low-calorie/carbohydrates diet, physical exercise, and stress avoidance.”

Click here to read the full theory article, published by Aging.

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE: MORE AGING VIDEOS ON LABTUBE

—

Aging is an open-access journal that publishes research papers monthly in all fields of aging research and other topics. These papers are available to read at no cost to readers on Aging-us.com. Open-access journals offer information that has the potential to benefit our societies from the inside out and may be shared with friends, neighbors, colleagues, and other researchers, far and wide.


For media inquiries, please contact [email protected].

  • Follow Us