Telomerase reactivation in mice shows promising results

[adam_grif]

The Study, from Nature, for those with access.

For those without, an article from The Guardian:

Scientists claim to be a step closer to reversing the ageing process after rejuvenating worn out organs in elderly mice. The experimental treatment developed by researchers at Harvard Medical School turned weak and feeble old mice into healthy animals by regenerating their aged bodies.

The surprise recovery of the animals has raised hopes among scientists that it may be possible to achieve a similar feat in humans – or at least to slow down the ageing process.

An anti-ageing therapy could have a dramatic impact on public health by reducing the burden of age-related health problems, such as dementia, stroke and heart disease, and prolonging the quality of life for an increasingly aged population.

"What we saw in these animals was not a slowing down or stabilisation of the ageing process. We saw a dramatic reversal – and that was unexpected," said Ronald DePinho, who led the study, which was published in the journal Nature.

"This could lead to strategies that enhance the regenerative potential of organs as individuals age and so increase their quality of life. Whether it serves to increase longevity is a question we are not yet in a position to answer."

The ageing process is poorly understood, but scientists know it is caused by many factors. Highly reactive particles called free radicals are made naturally in the body and cause damage to cells, while smoking, ultraviolet light and other environmental factors contribute to ageing.

The Harvard group focused on a process called telomere shortening. Most cells in the body contain 23 pairs of chromosomes, which carry our DNA. At the ends of each chromosome is a protective cap called a telomere. Each time a cell divides, the telomeres are snipped shorter, until eventually they stop working and the cell dies or goes into a suspended state called "senescence". The process is behind much of the wear and tear associated with ageing.

At Harvard, they bred genetically manipulated mice that lacked an enzyme called telomerase that stops telomeres getting shorter. Without the enzyme, the mice aged prematurely and suffered ailments, including a poor sense of smell, smaller brain size, infertility and damaged intestines and spleens. But when DePinho gave the mice injections to reactivate the enzyme, it repaired the damaged tissues and reversed the signs of ageing.

"These were severely aged animals, but after a month of treatment they showed a substantial restoration, including the growth of new neurons in their brains," said DePinho.

Repeating the trick in humans will be more difficult. Mice make telomerase throughout their lives, but the enzyme is switched off in adult humans, an evolutionary compromise that stops cells growing out of control and turning into cancer. Raising levels of telomerase in people might slow the ageing process, but it makes the risk of cancer soar.

DePinho said the treatment might be safe in humans if it were given periodically and only to younger people who do not have tiny clumps of cancer cells already living, unnoticed, in their bodies.

David Kipling, who studies ageing at Cardiff University, said: "The goal for human tissue 'rejuvenation' would be to remove senescent cells, or else compensate for the deleterious effects they have on tissues and organs. Although this is a fascinating study, it must be remembered that mice are not little men, particularly with regard to their telomeres, and it remains unclear whether a similar telomerase reactivation in adult humans would lead to the removal of senescent cells."

Lynne Cox, a biochemist at Oxford University, said the study was "extremely important" and "provides proof of principle that short-term treatment to restore telomerase in adults already showing age-related tissue degeneration can rejuvenate aged tissues and restore physiological function."

DePinho said none of Harvard's mice developed cancer after the treatment. The team is now investigating whether it extends the lifespan of mice or enables them to live healthier lives into old age.

Tom Kirkwood, director of the Institute for Ageing and Health at Newcastle University, said: "The key question is what might this mean for human therapies against age-related diseases? While there is some evidence that telomere erosion contributes to age-associated human pathology, it is surely not the only, or even dominant, cause, as it appears to be in mice engineered to lack telomerase. Furthermore, there is the ever-present anxiety that telomerase reactivation is a hallmark of most human cancers."

[Skgoa]

So the big problem with eternal life is still cancer? Well, I guess if this can be made to work in humans, we will at least have less age related problems in the sceond halve of our lifes.

[Eulogy]

Even if this doesn't result in true agelessness, this is still a huge, promising step in the right direction. Who doesn't want to shove nature's limitations up the ass?

If this article is true, then youth treatments, even if it only works a few times, is only a matter of time.

[Temujin]

So the big problem with eternal life is still cancer? Well, I guess if this can be made to work in humans, we will at least have less age related problems in the sceond halve of our lifes.

Fortunately other advances, especially in cancer treatment and prevention, might help to offset any problems or side effects as this is developed. Right now I'd settle for just a limited / partial regeneration treatment, especially for treating injuries; I have a few I'd like to fix, particularly dealing with my spinal discs.

[Molyneux]

I really would love to try reading the paper...sadly, I don't have a Nature subscription. I'll color myself "cautiously optimistic" on this one until I can see real details.

[Darth Yoshi]

The quoted article mentions that the prematurely aged mice had smaller than normal brains. Does anyone know if that means the treatment actually restored neurons? As it is, I believe that neural degeneration would still be a problem, even if we were to keep the rest of the body running indefinitely.

[CaptainChewbacca]

The quoted article mentions that the prematurely aged mice had smaller than normal brains. Does anyone know if that means the treatment actually restored neurons? As it is, I believe that neural degeneration would still be a problem, even if we were to keep the rest of the body running indefinitely.

I've read other articles elsewhere, and I got to flip through a copy of Nature recently; There was actual neuron growth as a result of the treatment, in addition to the rejuvenation of existing tissue.

[Molyneux]

The quoted article mentions that the prematurely aged mice had smaller than normal brains. Does anyone know if that means the treatment actually restored neurons? As it is, I believe that neural degeneration would still be a problem, even if we were to keep the rest of the body running indefinitely.

I've read other articles elsewhere, and I got to flip through a copy of Nature recently; There was actual neuron growth as a result of the treatment, in addition to the rejuvenation of existing tissue.

Take any of my comments as the product of a non-medically educated mind, but...does that mean that we could potentially see a treatment for Alzheimer's coming out of this research, eventually? (I can't help but cringe at the probability of brain tumors, though.)

[adam_grif]

I suppose, but it would depend on many things. The problem for many diseases related to aging may not be that these systems aren't working, but that something along the way has made them work differently, which results in certain diseases.

Of course, I'm just a lay person too.

[open_sketchbook]

You know, we're getting better and better at killing off cancer. We're actually sort of really good at it now. I'd totally take frequent cancer screening and constant early treatments in exchange for extended life, particularly seeing as every day longer I live than I ought to is one day for science to figure out how to make me live longer than that.

Besides, anything to give the Grim Reaper the finger.

[Molyneux]

My hope now is that this leads somewhere, proves useful in humans, and most importantly, proves useful soon enough that it can be used on my parents.

[adam_grif]

My hope now is that this leads somewhere, proves useful in humans, and most importantly, proves useful soon enough that it can be used on my parents.

I hope it gets here in time to save Sean Connery and Michael Ironside.

[Drooling Iguana]

My hope now is that this leads somewhere, proves useful in humans, and most importantly, proves useful soon enough that it can be used on my parents.

I hope it gets here in time to save Sean Connery and Michael Ironside.

I hope that the use of birth control becomes more widespread before this is perfected.

[Temujin]

My hope now is that this leads somewhere, proves useful in humans, and most importantly, proves useful soon enough that it can be used on my parents.

I hope it gets here in time to save Sean Connery and Michael Ironside.

I hope that the use of birth control becomes more widespread before this is perfected.

That's a fear of mine as well, we already have too many people on this planet.

In most developed countries with their relatively low birth rate it shouldn't be much of a problem. With people guaranteed to have a longer, healthy, youthful life the pressure to have a child by a certain age may even be reduced. I don't know what the official figures are off hand currently compared with traditionally, but in the US many women are having their first (and often only) child later in their mid to late 30s and even their early to mid 40s.

However we have billions more and growing than the planet can realistically support resource wise with our current level of technology for anything other than the short term.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

Relax. Life-extending treatments will be rather limited in scope and basically limited to first-world countries and ruling elites in the third world and United States (plus the very upper middle class here). If you seriously think this would be available to those people having six kids in Yemen, then, well, I don't know what to say.

[Temujin]

All to true. But even a minor medical treatment that extends life in someway (not a full blown rejuvenation treatment), like vaccinations, can cause excess population growth that puts a strain on a community, especially one living at a subsistence level; something that could conceivably arise from this research. I remember hearing in the late 80s / early 90s that the WHO vaccination programs had helped to aggravate problems where drought and famine were occurring because more children had survived who would have previously died of childhood diseases. Unfortunately all I kept finding on Google was a lot of woo woo conspiracy theories that vaccinations were part of a government depopulation program.