We'll soon all live to 120 years old - but this is probably the absolute limit, claims expert

The number of people living past 100 has soared by 71 per cent in the past decade.

And while one expert believes this figure will continue to rise, he stated that anyone hoping to live for double or triple this time will be disappointed.

Speaking at a gerontology conference, Professor Sir Colin Blakemore claimed there is a ceiling on how long humans can live, and how much the body can age - and he stated that that 120 years ‘might be a real absolute limit to human lifespan.’

Sir Blakemore, 70, is a British neurobiologist and was formerly chief executive of the British Medical Research Council.

He said people living for longer than 120 years is ‘so rarely exceeded’ that, even with medical and technological advances, it is unlikely this upper threshold will be raised.

The claims were made at a Legal and General conference earlier this week, as reported by Tom Whipple in The Times.

A panel of gerontologists and scientists discussed the future of medicine, global health concerns and life expectancy.

COULD WE LIVE TO 500 YEARS OLD? 

Professor Sir Blakemore’s claims contradict those made previously by researchers at Buck Institute of Age Research, Novato, California earlier this year.

Dr Pankaj Kapahi believes that scientific breakthroughs could potential extend human lives dramatically, by four or five fold.

This could eventually lead to people living until they were 500 years old, for example. 

He made these claims after tweaking two genetic pathways in the lab worm Caenorhabditis elegans, which successfully boosted the creature's lifespan by a factor of five.

While it could take years of research to extend humans’ lives in the same way, the study raises the prospect of anti-ageing treatments informed by genetic interactions, according to Dr Kapahi. 

It agreed that medicines will have a limited effect on extending human life, and it was more important to improve the health and quality of life for older people, rather than prolonging it.

The panel also stated it was key to improve the life expectancy in poorer regions, or areas where people typically die much younger than other areas.

The 2014 Global AgeWatch Index, which ranks 96 nations on the quality of life for the elderly, recently stated that by 2050, the number of over 60s will be 21 per cent of the global population.

This is almost double the current figure of 12 per cent.

The proportion of over-80s is growing fastest, too – projected to rise from two per cent now to four per cent of the global population by 2050.

Professor Sir Blakemore’s claims contradict those made previously by researchers at Buck Institute of Age Research, Novato, California earlier this year.

Dr Pankaj Kapahi believes that scientific breakthroughs could potential extend human lives dramatically, by four or five-fold.

This could eventually lead to people living until they were 500 years old, for example. 

He made these claims after tweaking two genetic pathways in the lab worm Caenorhabditis elegans, which successfully boosted the creature's lifespan by a factor of five.

While it could take years of research to extend humans’ lives in the same way, the study raises the prospect of anti-ageing treatments informed by genetic interactions, according to Dr Kapahi.

The 2014 Global AgeWatch Index recently stated that by 2050, the number of over 60s will be 21 per cent of the global population.This is almost double the current figure of 12 per cent. The proportion of over-80s is growing fastest, too  projected to rise from two per cent now to four per cent of the global population by 2050

The number of people living to 100 has increased by 71 per cent in the last ten years, and has shot up more than five-fold since the Eighties. There are now more than half a million people aged 90 and above living in the UK, with nearly 14,000 of them aged more than 100, compared to just 2,500 in 1980

‘In the early years, cancer researchers focused on mutations in single genes, but then it became apparent that different mutations in a class of genes were driving the disease process,’ he said.

‘The same thing is likely happening in ageing,’ he added.

THE RISE OF CENTENARIANS 

The number of people living to 100 in the UK has increased by 71 per cent in the last ten years, and has shot up more than five-fold since the Eighties.

There are now more than half a million people aged 90 and above living in this country, with nearly 14,000 of them aged more than 100, compared to just 2,500 in 1980.

There are also 710 people who have lived beyond their 105th birthday, up from 340 ten years ago. 

Data released by the Office for National Statistics also showed life expectancy has increased again, with the gap between the sexes continuing to close.

Men born this year can expect to live to 78, while women will reach 82 on average. That is compared to just 70 for men born between 1980 and 1982, and 76 for women. 

C. elegans, a type of worm, was the first animal to have its whole genome, or genetic code, mapped, and has been widely used in studies of ageing and lifespan.

The research, reported in the journal Cell Reports, involved blocking key molecules that affect the action of insulin and a nutrient signalling pathway called Target of Rapamycin (TOR).

Single mutations in the TOR pathway were known to extend the lifespan of C. elegans by 30 per cent, while insulin-signalling mutations could double the amount of time they lived.

Adding the two together might have been expected to extend longevity by 130 per cent, but the combined impact turned out to be much greater.

The research may explain why it has proved so difficult to identify single genes responsible for the long lives enjoyed by human centenarians.

‘It's quite probable that interactions between genes are critical in those fortunate enough to live very long, healthy lives,’ said Dr Kapahi.

Future research is expected to use mice to see if the same effects occur in mammals.

‘The idea would be to use mice genetically engineered to have suppressed insulin signalling and then treat them with the drug rapamycin, which is well-known to suppress the TOR pathway,’ Dr Kapahi said.