Free Radical Timer of Aging: from Chemistry of Free Radicals to Systems Theory of Reliability

There are two generally known concepts in biology of aging. Accordingly to the first one, there is a program of aging. The alternative concept advocates that aging proceeds stochastically. In this area of research, free radical-theory of aging, which was put forward by Denham Harman in fifties of XXth century, has determined the most heuristic line. The goal of this review is to demonstrate how the aging program and the aging stochastics are united on the basis of the systems theory of reliability. On this basis, universal features of aging, such as the exponential growth of mortality rate with time and correlation of longevity with the species-specific resting metabolism, are naturally explained. The stochastic malfunctions of the mitochondrial electron transport nanoreactors, which produce the oxygen anion-radicals (O2•-) as by-products of respiration, seem to be of first importance. As a reducing agent, O2•- affects the ratio of NAD(P)H/NAD(P)+ and, by changing the activity of sirtuins, slows down renewal of biomolecular constructs. As a consequence, the oxidative-stress products and other metabolic slag accumulate with the resulting impetus to autophagic or apoptotic cell death accompanied with age-associated clinical disorders. Based on this reliability-theory approach, one can estimate that the longevity of human brain could reach 250 years should the antioxidant defense against the free-radical failures be perfect. Thus, the free-radical redox timer serves as effective stochastic mechanism of realization of the programmed deficiency in reliability of biomolecular constructs.