Scientists have made an astonishing breakthrough in their search for longevity therapies: one pill can reprogram cells to reverse age in mice.
This discovery could bring us closer to a future when injuries can be repaired more efficiently and whole-body rejuvenation becomes possible; however, many mainstream scientists view such research with great skepticism.
Chemical Cocktails Revive Human Cells
Biomedicine’s most impressive breakthrough was the ability of scientists to restore adult cells to their original states – something for which they were awarded a Nobel Prize. Now researchers claim to have made another important advance by discovering chemical cocktails can reverse cellular aging and revive human cells.
Harvard Medical School genetics professors and their students recently made an astounding discovery: five to seven drugs combined together can rejuvenate senescent cells — old and dysfunctional cells — back to youthfulness. They discovered this cocktail can reverse multiple markers of aging such as mitochondrial function and gene expression, including mitochondrial dysfunction and gene expression changes. Included among its ingredients is Valproic Acid used for epilepsy/migraine treatment as well as Rapamycin an antibiotic with anti-ageing properties.
Researchers tested various chemical combinations on senescent human and mouse skin cells using sophisticated laboratory assays such as transcription-based aging clocks and real-time nucleocytoplasmic protein compartmentalization (NCC) assays to assess whether any chemicals reverted their age of cells. Six chemical combinations successfully returned NCC as well as genomic-wide transcripts to their more youthful state within four days, thus reversing their transcriptomic age of cells.
Scientists found in their research that human cells exposed to senescent human cells treated with an age reversal cocktail had enhanced ability to handle stress, with reduced levels of inflammatory proteins. This suggests that reverse biological age could help humans better resist adverse consequences associated with stress or other conditions that cause DNA oxidative damage.
Though these findings are promising, longevity experts remain wary. “We are still far away from discovering any magic fountain of youth pill,” Luigi Fontana, author of Manual of Healthy Longevity & Wellbeing at University of Sydney’s Healthy Longevity Research & Clinical Program and director of Healthy Longevity Research & Clinical Program informs Fortune. Additionally, “it is too soon to say what the implications of this study will be for humans.”
Researchers were able to increase yeast cell lifespan by switching them between two aging pathways, showing promise in their attempt at reversing cellular aging reversal; however, they employed an expensive and time-consuming genetic editing approach; moving forward they will test these chemicals on living organisms before concluding their work.
Eliminates the Need for Gene Therapy
Researchers working to perfect gene editing have made an exciting discovery: viral vectors may no longer be needed as carriers for therapeutic genes in patients’ cells. According to reports, this new technique is both more effective and safer than existing methods.
This breakthrough could revolutionize gene therapy. Scientists behind it have devised a way of turning ordinary human cells into pluripotent stem cells without altering their natural genetic makeup, giving these stem cells the capacity to grow, self-renew, and differentiate into any cell in the body – potentially treating conditions including ageing and cancers.
Gene therapy seeks to treat diseases by replacing or correcting one disease-causing gene with another one that works, with several already approved to treat rare conditions. Although expensive and complex in their creation, gene therapies have made significant advances towards improving patient health.
Some have objected to gene therapy on moral grounds. Others feel that its implementation would allow discrimination against impaired individuals. No matter your position on this issue, gene therapies continue to enjoy strong demand in the market place.
One of the biggest challenges of gene therapy lies in making sure patients derive maximum benefit from each treatment, with research continuing towards creating treatments with longer-lasting benefits that accumulate with each new application.
Biopharma companies have taken note, investing in manufacturing capacity for virus-free vectors with hopes that this investment will ease a major bottleneck in gene therapy supply chains.
Viral vector gene therapies can be expensive. Some experts have speculated that their cost will lead to the collapse of employer-sponsored insurance; however, Jalpa Doshi, Morgan Eilers, Atul Gupta and Mark Pauly from LDI Senior Fellows predict in their Health Affairs Scholar article that current system of employer-paid group coverage supplemented with stop-loss policies may remain resilient in light of new treatments being introduced into it.
Future gene therapy could have an enormously wide-ranging impact on healthcare. Beyond treating specific diseases, gene therapy could even help regenerate organs or even slow down aging processes.
Revolutionizes the Treatment of Ageing and Injuries
Scientists believe their discovery could pave the way to regenerative medicine and whole-body rejuvenation treatments that could enable us to combat age-related illnesses without resorting to medications, effectively protecting us against debilitating age-related diseases that plague many older individuals. By harnessing hydrogen molecules’ healing powers they may have found what has long been sought out as “holy grail” of anti-age research research.
Researchers used chemical cocktails to restore the telomeres (end caps that protect genes) of cells and reverse aging, as well as restore chromosome stability to combat cancerous growth. With this technique, the team created young and healthy mice that featured fully functioning spinal cords along with youthful features such as healthy hearts, livers, kidneys, brains and muscles.
To meet their goal, scientists relied on their 2012 Nobel Prize-winning discovery that certain Yamanaka factors can transform adult cells into pluripotent stem cells capable of self-renewing and differentiating into any cell type in the body – including bone marrow, muscle tissue and retinal neurons. With these pluripotent cells in hand, scientists were able to regenerate tissues and organs such as bone marrow, muscle tissue and retinal neurons through regeneration processes.
As they went further, scientists identified a protein that plays a central role in spinal cord aging. By blocking this protein they were able to slow its effects in animals while restoring functionality in their spinal cords – an invaluable finding, since the spinal cord plays such an integral role in human motor control that it’s necessary for many basic tasks such as walking.
By targeting CHIT1 protein, researchers hope to prevent and treat various age-related chronic diseases, including Alzheimer’s. Furthermore, this technique could potentially extend beyond Alzheimer’s to include lung and eye conditions.
No one can turn back time decades, but we can certainly slow it and enhance our quality of life with some simple lifestyle choices. Take 45-year-old biotech founder Bryan Johnson. In order to live like a 20-year-old he spends $2 Million each year on supplements, juice, and health experts with hopes of reversing biological age – something many others attempt too.
Potential for Whole-Body Rejuvenation
Scientists have developed a chemical method for reversing cell aging, opening the door for revolutionary treatments for age-related diseases as well as improving regenerative medicine. Harvard team’s discovery opens up whole body rejuvenation.
According to a new study, aging results from a decline in cellular information and specifically epigenetics. Researchers identified chemicals which can rejuvenate cells by resetting gene expression patterns; this represents an enormous advance, since genetic manipulation can be costly and risky.
Scientists conducted tests using chemicals on cells that distinguish between young and old cells, finding six combinations that reversed aging within days to restore youthfulness without altering identity. Additionally, they examined senescent cells – another hallmark of aging – where chemical cocktails could successfully reverse transcriptomic aging as well.
Researchers are already conducting human clinical trials of their reverse-aging compounds, with hopes that these chemicals will become effective pills to treat age-related diseases and injuries, extend lifespan, or both. But longevity experts remain wary: Luigi Fontana of Manual of Healthy Longevity fame states: “We’re still far from finding an answer for longevity,” noting how this research does not address key components such as inflammation or mitochondrial dysfunction which would play an integral part in lengthening lifespan.
Matt Kaeberlein, a biogerontologist from University of California Davis, agrees with this research as being significant, yet cautions it’s too soon to claim we’ve discovered the fountain of youth. According to him, animal studies should first have validated their concoctions for optimal health metrics or lifespan improvements before making such extravagant claims.
The Harvard team’s discovery moves us one step closer towards an ideal world where injuries heal faster, diseases reverse themselves and a single pill cure becomes possible – yet first we must overcome the hurdles associated with regenerative medicine.
