Rhombus, Greeg, Shrimpy Danielson, who appeared in like a couple of episodes 5 years ago, and of course, the wonderful Circlia.

And me, Mocko! I just showed up because I'm lonely. 

Great, stay over there! Whoa! Everyone! Look out the window! There's a horde of glowing Ghouls! 

Triangle Bob, start boarding up the windows, and me…well, I'll do the most appropriate thing for this situation: make a Youtube video!

What? Knowledge is power! Queue the intro!

Hey there! Welcome to Life Noggin!

These Glowing Ghouls exist in my world, but not in your human world, right? Well, kind of.

Your body actually produces a substance that glows and understanding it might be a key to treating age-related diseases.

Yeah, these two things are related, but to explain it more, we need to first talk about what happens when your body's recycling plant starts failing.

To keep us running properly, our cells process a lot of different materials, like proteins.

But eventually, these materials become damaged or are no longer needed.

Instead of just letting all this junk pile up, the lysosomes in our cells contain powerful chemicals called enzymes that break molecules apart so they can be reused.

Very resourceful humans. Good job!

But sometimes things go wrong. 

Lysosomes can be overloaded with waste, or the waste materials aren't brought to the lysosomes at all.

Excuse me, one second. Circlia, could you take care of them, please. Thanks, honey! You're the best.

One type of cellular junk is lipofuscin.

This is a yellowish-brown pigment made up of proteins, fats, and metals.

Scientists aren't sure exactly how it forms, but believe that one of the sources is damaged mitochondria.

It's okay, buddy. You don't always have to be the powerhouse.

Whatever its origin, lipofuscin seems to grow once formed, grabbing onto everything it comes in contact with.

And because it forms strong bonds, it can't be removed from the cell.

As we age, lipofuscin accumulates. 

One group of scientists found that it occupies as much as 70% of the volume of brain cells of people over 100.

Oh, yeah. It also glows.

This is called autofluorescence and it happens when lipofuscin is exposed to blue or purple light.

These EDM-loving monsters in my world are definitely fluorescent, but if people are full of this glowing substance, why don't we see it everywhere?

I mean, 600 million years of animal life–and death–on your planet would lead to a lot of undegraded lipofuscin, right?

Well, other organisms in your human world do have the enzymes needed to break lipofuscin and other stubborn junk down, such as microbes like bacteria.

There are plenty of these microbes in our soil that help decompose dead bodies! Fun!

And this, my flesh monsters with an expiration date, is what has inspired scientists to use these enzymes to treat age-related diseases.

Hey, there's that tie-in I mentioned in the beginning of the vidoe.

It's all connected and it's all fascinating!

You see, when a cell's recycling system fails, and there's a build-up of junk, the cell can become dysfunctional.

This leads to age-related diseases like atherosclerosis, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, and macular degeneration.

All of which are very bad.

But these diseases could be treated using new, engineered enzymes based off of microbes.

For instance, a team of researchers discovered an enzyme in mycobacteria that could be engineered to break down excess cholesterol.

This excess can cause atherosclerosis as it builds up and creates plaques that reduce blood flow or cause the artery to burst, leading to a blood clot.

When tested in mice, the cholesterol-degrading platform eliminated half of the pre-existing plaque in their cute little mouse aortas.

This and other lysosome-based treatment strategies are being funded by the SENS Research Foundation's LysoSENS research track. 

Oh hey! They sponsored this video!

So, if you're interested in learning more about them and their work, click the first link in the description right now.

So here's my question to you, the beautiful person watching:

If you could live to the age of 200 and you are completely healthy, would you do it?

What age would you even want to live to and what would you do with that extra time?

Let me know in the comments section below. I'm going to be gathering some responses for a future video!

Click subscribe, hit the bell and click the like because it really helps us out.

As always, my name is Blocko. This has been Life Noggin. Don't forget to keep on thinking.