Myung Min is from Ao Fei Temple
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The anti-aging "miracle drug" that Silicon Valley's billionaires are obsessed with has recently made new progress.
Now, taking a pill can not only target the elimination of senescent cells, but also increase the level of anti-aging proteins in the organism.
And the drug has been experimented on humans.
The results showed that patients with rare disease idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) had significantly increased levels of anti-aging protein α-Klotho in their urine after a period of oral medication.
This is a protein that helps transmit signals to anti-aging hormones, and research has been published in Nature.
The latest development was brought by the team of James L. Kirkland at Mayo Medical Center, and the results have been published in the Lancet journal eBioMedicine.
It is worth mentioning that the team also set up a drug development company Unity Biotechnology, and among the investors are the famous anti-aging industry enthusiasts - Bezos.
Effective against both humans & mice
The drug used in this study is oral Senolytics.
It's a drug that targets senescent cells from living organisms.
The senescent cells mentioned here often stop self-replication and division because of DNA damage and other reasons, but have a high resistance to normal apoptosis, and secrete a series of molecules and proteases with pro-inflammatory properties (collectively referred to as SASP factors).
Scientists have previously found senescent cells in corresponding parts of the body of patients with osteoarthritis, pulmonary fibrosis, atherosclerosis and other patients.
Therefore, some people refer to it as a "zombie cell".
The content of such cells has a certain relationship with the anti-aging protein α-Klotho.
As the content of α-Klotho decreases, senescent cells accumulate more and more in the organism, and the secretion of SASP factors will increase, which will further exacerbate the deficiency of α-Klotho.
Therefore, researchers speculate that oral medications that can remove senescent cells will also increase α-Klotho levels.
To do this, the researchers conducted experiments on mice and humans, respectively.
There are a total of 3 models in mouse experiments. They are: natural aging group, diet-induced obesity group, transplanted senescent cell group.
The researchers examined the α-Klotho content in the kidneys, brains and urine of the mice, respectively.
The results showed that the average content of α-Klotho in the cerebellum and choroid plexus in mice increased after taking the drug.
(Compared with a and b in Figures below, the more obvious the bright color indicates that the higher the content of α-Klotho; DQ indicates the use of dasatinib + quercetin drugs, both of which are Senolytics drugs)
The same is true in the case of urine and kidneys.
Let's take a look at the effects of human consumption.
It can be seen that after more than 3 weeks of treatment, the content of α-Klotho in the subjects' urine was also significantly increased.
The researchers say that oral Senolytics drugs can be administered intermittently compared to other anti-aging modalities.
This is because senescent cells do not re-develop for several weeks after they are removed, which can be understood as a longer period of time that drugs can control.
They call this mechanism "hit and run."
And the way of oral medication may be more practical than the way of recombinant α-Klotho protein or related peptides.
Currently, many Senolytics drugs can be used to fight cancer or to treat kidney disease caused by diabetes. For example, dasatinib and quercetin.
Fire for thousands of years of anti-aging research
The research on Senolytics has actually become an important direction in the field of anti-aging.
The representative research team in this direction is the James L. Kirkland team that brought new progress this time.
Previously, he discovered that the Senolytics drug could even reverse the symptoms of aging in mice to some extent, a result reported by Nature.
In 2019, they also conducted experiments on humans for the first time.
The results showed that the mobility of patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis after taking the drug for 3 weeks was significantly improved.
Most patients increased their mobility by more than 5 percent, and the average walking distance increased by 21.5 meters in 6 minutes.
In 2020, anti-aging drugs were also selected as the top ten scientific and technological breakthroughs of the year by MIT Technology Review.
When it comes to anti-aging research, from Qin Shi Huang to today's Silicon Valley rich people, they are full of interest.
For example, Unity Biotechnology, a drug development company founded by James L. Kirkland's team, has Amazon founder Bezos injected capital behind it.
Just last year, he and Yuri Milner, a well-known Silicon Valley investor, invested in Altos Labs, another company focused on anti-aging.
The company is even more remarkable, with a team of scientists including 2012 Nobel Laureate in Medicine Shinya Yamanaka, who chose to use reprogramming technology for the technical route.
According to Altos Labs, the company has attracted $3 billion in investment.
Not long ago, they also published their latest research in the Nature sub-journal, through epigenetic reprogramming, mice "return to youth" and prolong survival.
It is worth mentioning that there are not a few rich people like Bezos who bet on anti-aging research and development.
Google founders Larry Page and Li Ka-shing also spent a lot of money on this.
Moreover, the path of anti-aging research is also wider than we think.
In addition to oral medications, gene editing, the magic way of blood exchange is still being tried by many people...