Dr. Kiprov’s latest lecture and the preliminary results of the plasmapheresis clinical trial for aging, which was presented at the A4M Longevity Fest last week in Las Vegas.
I was in group A or B (they haven’t told me which one).
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It looks like it worked for other people. Maybe you’re too healthy.
I doubt it… as they say, there is no such thing as “healthy aging” 
Perhaps the added benefit over rapamycin is minimal, or perhaps my biological age improved but didn’t change how I feel. I’ll be doing some new bloodwork soon and see how my Levine Phenotypic measure is doing… and report back.
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How was Dr Kiprov in person? In his presentation he seems like he is struggling and having some brain aging issues. I would think he would be getting the treatment often but I heard somewhere he doesnt do the TPE treatment himself, which is confusing.
I can’t say I’ve spent a lot of time talking with Dr. Kiprov. As a new patient in the clinical trial Stella, who was the main clinical trial person I interacted with, introduced me one day to Dr. Kirprov when we was in getting the treatments. I spent most of my time with Stella who did the record keeping and functional testing, then with the RNs who actually administer the plasmapheresis. There is at least one other doctor who I think oversees the clinic and I spoke with him for quite a while asking questions about the details of the trial and plasmapheresis more generally. The only other time I spoke with Dobri Kiprov was when I ran into him at the Buck Institute in December of this year and I introduced myself again and asked about when the result would be available.
I have no idea about his own use TPE or other issues. He is an older guy (I think he’s about 74 years old) and doesn’t look like he follows any sort of rigorous exercise regimen, so I suspect he could benefit from a Peter Attia like longevity program.
I talked with dr Kiprov prior to and during a couple of my treatments at his clinic. He told me he was doing TPE every two months. I didn’t find him to be brain-aged, but no spring chicken either.
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I take numerous of the well known supplements that people will write or talk about giving them very noticeable positive effects. I generally feel nothing different.
My feeling on this experience is that unless you suffer from a deficiency or have any sort of metabolic imbalance or dysfunction you wont feel much of an improvement.
I would guess that your plasmapheresis experience is uneventful because you are very healthy.
Nor does Dr. Kiprov (or COnboy lab) compare TPE to simple and Free plasma donation where it is possible to overboard 25% of your plasma. Some centers allow twice a week and regular blood banks 1x/month (in US). Doesn’t cost thousand per TPE that MDs which I suspect plays a role. Would have been easy enough to add 2 or three people to their 2022 study to make a stab at a dose resonse.
A recent trial looked at the effects of high frequency and very high frequency plasma donations in healthy adults. They didn’t look in depth at ageing biomarkers unfortunately, only at haematological changes and changs in physical performance. Apart from a significant drop in ferritin and immunoglobulin levels (the former is kinda new, the latter was well known and expected), no other observations were made.
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My ferritin drops after a sequence of plasma donations but it is on low side to begin with, But it only takes modest Fe supplementation for a few days after each donation to keep it stable. My albumin also takes a modest dip but recovers in 3 to 4 day, Will be testing some of the biomarkers mention in the 2022 Conboy paper (DNA damage Cd8+ etc.)
Interesting read by Peter Dimandis. He does it and Fountain Life is now offering it.
Full blog post here:
Young Blood & Longevity: Therapeutic Plasma Exchange (TPE) Treatments?
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I have to wonder what the typical cost for his customers for this service will be. If anyone finds out, please post it. I wonder if the prices are coming down yet. When I did this with Dobri Kirov as part of his trial it was priced at around $36K for the suite of 6 treatments.
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I have done TPE in Boca Raton-FL (by Dr. Kiprov accredited clinc). I did 4 this year and paid 5k each.
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Did you get any measurable and positive results (from blood tests, or subjectively)?
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Also, I just wanted to add this interesting note from a recent interview with Tony Wyss-Coray at Stanford U.:
Q. But it has been seen that young blood rejuvenates organs.
A. There was a study led by Tom Rando [researcher at Stanford University] that showed that young blood rejuvenates muscle stem cells. When you’re old, muscles stop regenerating because those stem cells stop doing their job. This experiment demonstrated in mice that young blood reactivates muscle stem cells. It also has an effect on other tissues, such as hematopoietic cells, which make up the immune system. We saw something similar in the brain. The other interesting observation is that with age there is an increase in inflammation throughout the body, and young blood also seems to reduce inflammation.
Q. Why?
A. We don’t know. I don’t think it’s through stem cells, but rather an active effect of blood proteins. We also know that removing plasma from an older individual is beneficial, because the body probably accumulates toxic factors over time.
Q. You and other groups are testing these effects in Alzheimer’s patients. What has been observed so far?
A. What people have tried is to remove plasma from old people and then give them young plasma**.** This same procedure, apheresis, is used in cases in which we are not clear what disease the patient has, for example autoimmune diseases, or also chronic fatigue syndrome. That seems to be beneficial.
Q. What results were seen in Alzheimer’s?
A. Grifols did a phase 2-3 trial several years ago. It showed clear benefits for patients. The ones we did with the company I co-founded, Alkahest, were not as compelling due to the small number of patients; but those from Grifols, with a double-blind and controlled trial, showed clear improvement. But no progress has been made.
Q. Why?
A. Because Grifols doesn’t have money. They had a lot of problems during the pandemic and then applied for a lot of cheap loans from the European Union and banks. Interest rates went up and now they have a lot of debt. They have also been accused of poor business practices. They don’t have money to continue with trials. Another major problem is that they couldn’t make money from this. Grifols is dedicated to selling plasma and it is a relatively cheap product. How could they charge five times more for giving it to people with Alzheimer’s?
…
Q. Even if this were to be transformed into a treatment, you say that it would likely be impossible to carry it out, why?
A. Because benefits have been seen not only in people with Alzheimer’s, but also other diseases. Sarcopenia [muscle loss], heart ailments. Millions of people could be treated with plasma and it would be beneficial. The problem here is that there wouldn’t be enough plasma to treat everyone. There are rich people who pay for plasma transfusions, and they have been doing so long before all this was known.
Q. Are these treatments reliable?
A. No. It probably has some benefit, but there are only anecdotal cases of improvement in general health and also in cognition. In fact, this is how Alkahest was founded. The funds were provided by a wealthy Hong Kong family. The head of the family had Alzheimer’s. He received a transfusion because he also had cancer. His grandson realized that every time his grandfather had a transfusion his memory returned and he could talk to him again. He was the one who provided the funds. [The founder was Chen Din Hwa, a billionaire of Chinese origin, who died in 2012. After seeing the extraordinary effects of the transfusions, his relatives provided the funds to create Alkahest. The company was acquired by Grifols in 2020].
Q. Is there any other way to unblock this situation?
A. Hopefully, but it is very complex. There are tens of thousands of proteins in plasma, and among them there are hundreds of thousands of different variants. We don’t know which ones we need. Here we return to the problem of the natural fountain of youth. It is possible that the rejuvenating proteins we have in our blood are in a different conformation than if we synthesized them in the laboratory. Animal experiments would have to be done for each one, but it is an enormous and very expensive challenge; we are talking about about 10,000 molecules. There are now many companies focused on identifying some of these rejuvenating factors.
Full interview here:
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As I do, like many here in this forum, several longevity approuch, i cant infer nothing in insolation that can be credited to TPE. I make because i think that make sense stay free from my old and tired plasma…Iam 72.
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Kiprov, and others, are making a good living off of something that can be done free using a similar process, plasma donation.
I don’t think there is much evidence that the plasma dilution from plasma donation is very effective. See the discussion here: Plasma Dilution - #22 by Keith
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RapAdmin, might you have anything to report?
I won’t blame you if you don’t; I missed grossly myself on making before/after tests.
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