Volkmar Weissig

Prof. Volkmar Midwestern from University, College of Pharmacy Glendale, USA, will present at the 2nd World Congress on Targeting Longevity and talk about 'Mitochondrial Dysfunction as the Mother of all Hallmarks of Aging'.

Summary

The idea of mitochondria being linked to biological aging goes back to the 1950s, when Denham Harman proposed in 1956 his free radical theory of ageing [1]. During the following years Harman transformed his theory into the “Mitochondrial Free Radical Theory of Aging (MFRTA)” and the title of a paper he published in 1972 asked the question “A biologic clock: the mitochondrion?” [2].  After 2000, however, data were published which weakened the MFRTA (reviewed in [3]), culminating in two papers appearing in 2009 and 2012, respectively, both of which were asking in their headlines whether the oxidative stress theory of aging is dead [4,5]. Nevertheless, in 2013, in a meanwhile widely cited paper, mitochondrial dysfunction was acknowledged as one out of nine “Hallmarks of Aging” [6], the number of which has been extended 10 years later to twelve hallmarks [7]. Mitochondria were put back into the center of all aging hallmarks in 2024 by Lene Juel Rasmussen [8]. Following Rasmussen’s suggestion, I will argue in my presentation that mitochondrial dysfunction may indeed contribute to all twelve aspects of aging by a variety of mechanisms which go far beyond the lack of ATP and increased oxidative stress as caused by malfunctioning mitochondria.

References :

1. Harman, D. (1956) J Gerontol 11(3), 298-300
2. Harman, D. (1972) J Am Geriatr Soc 20(4), 145-147
3. Weissig, V., Edeas, M. (2022) 4open 5(5) 1-27
4. Perez, V.. et al. (2009) Biochim. Biophys. Acta 1790(10), 1005-1014
5. Richardson, A. (2012) Gerontologist 52, 405-406
6. Lopez-Otin, C. et al. (2013) Cell 153(6),1194-1217
7. Lopez-Otin, C. et al. (2023) Cell 186(2), 243-278
8. Rasmussen, L.J. (2024) Aging Cell 23(1),e13942


Targeting Longevity 2026

April 8-9, 2026
 - Berlin, Germany

www.targeting-longevity.com