Reverse aging in humans
Age could become just a number and not be associated with undesirable effects such as bone fragility, muscle weakness or increased risk of cardiovascular disease or cancer. Among the most important medical breakthroughs this year, Harvard scientists managed to reverse aging and blindness in mice.
David Sinclair and his molecular biology team at the Harvard Medical School are working a miracle: that old mice regain their youth and good eyesight. To do this, they are using proteins that can turn an adult cell into a stem cell, that is, they are making aging cells transform into older versions of themselves.
This study has been going on since 2020 in old mice with poor eyesight and damaged retinas. Now they have succeeded in making their eyesight fully regenerated. Surprisingly, the damaged neurons in the eyes of the mice injected with the three cells rejuvenated, even developing new axons or projections from the eye to the brain.
Sinclair said he is now working to rejuvenate a mouse's entire body. The study found that the cells know the body can reboot itself and have memory about genes that were active when they were young.
The study suggests that aging, and possibly the keys to reversing it, lie in the epigenome, the proteins and other compounds that make up DNA and influence which genes are turned on or off. If researchers can reproduce these results in other animals and explain their mechanism, the work could lead to treatments in humans for age-related diseases in the eye and beyond.
Epigenetic factors are central to understanding much about ourselves: they influence our metabolism, our susceptibility to various diseases, and even how emotional traumas are passed from generation to generation.
On the other hand, a team of scientists led by Izpisua Belmonte has demonstrated, in research promoted and funded by UCAM, that aging can be safely and effectively reversed by mildly reprogramming cells to more youthful stages in middle-aged and elder mice.
In 2016, Dr. Belmonte published for the first time that using yamanaka factors could reverse aging and increase lifespan in progeria mice.
In the study, different groups of mice with different age ranges received regular doses of the yamanaka factors. When the researchers analyzed the signs of aging in the treated animals they found that, in many respects, they resembled young animals.
Currently, the research team is planning new projects to analyze how treatment with Yamanaka factors affects specific molecules and genes in the long term, and they are also developing new ways of administering these factors.