Good news on the cellular rejuvenation side of things (but its still very early… still a long way to go, and many hurdles, before Yamanaka factors are proven to improve healthspan and / or lifespan.
FULL PAPER Here/Below:
s43587-022-00183-2sm.pdf (9.2 MB)
This is one of the most exciting areas of longevity research. In mice, we’ve seen evidence of rejuvenation in muscles, heart, brain optic nerve, skin and kidneys. Perhaps it is even more generalized.
I can definitely see this making it into (non-FDA approved) life extension clinics in the next 10 years. If it seems reasonably safe, wouldn’t you take the chance once you hit a certain age? 50? 60? 70?
Full paper added above. I’ve worked for a while in Biotech - and new clinical treatments tend to take longer to make it to market than I would have ever expected (coming from the Tech industry, where 6 months is a typical development cycle) - so I’m a little more skeptical that we’ll see anything like this in the next decade - but hey, we got the Covid vaccine out quickly, so I hope I’m wrong.
Of course the other issue is cost… I have no idea how easy or how individualized these Yamanaka factors need to be for personal therapeutics - but I just hope its affordable for most people. But yes - definitely would be interested in taking it if clinical trials show efficacy and safety.
A new article in altos labs:
EL PAÍS in English: Juan Carlos Izpisua: ‘Within two decades, we will be able to prevent aging’.
Izpisua is optimistic this research will yield results. “I am convinced that within two decades we will have tools that not only treat symptoms, but also can predict, prevent and treat diseases and aging through cellular rejuvenation.” He concludes: “Our end goal is to find new forms of helping everyone to slow or even reverse the processes that lead to disease.”
While the current research has been on mice,
Izpisua is planning similar research on monkeys. In this case, his team will try to rejuvenate the animals by partially programming the Yamanaka factors with RNA messenger technology, popularly known for its use in the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna Covid-19 vaccines, or with chemical compounds.
Some criticisms I’ve seen on the study that was recently announced:
Lol at MK’s tweet… By the end of the decade he’s going to be a household name.
And now:
Another group doing in vivo cellular reprograming, but this time in worms.
Source: https://x.com/aocampox/status/1787578149640786272
Source: https://x.com/OcampoLab/status/1787420938880930289
In the last decade, cellular reprogramming of fully differentiated cells to pluripotent stem cells has become of great interest. Importantly, cellular reprogramming by expression of Oct4, Sox2, Klf4, and cMyc (OSKM) can ameliorate age-associated phenotypes in multiple tissues and extend lifespan in progeroid and aged wild-type mice. Surprisingly, the effects of in vivo reprogramming have not been deeply investigated in any other model organisms. Here, for the first time, we induce in vivo reprogramming in C. elegans using a heat-inducible system at multiple developmental and adult stages. Similar to mice, expression of the reprogramming factors leads to premature death with different levels of toxicity at distinct developmental stages and aging. In vivo reprogramming in C. elegans might represent a valuable tool to improve our understanding of development and in vivo reprogramming.
