Young plasma for antiaging
Recent work by the firm Alkahest - which develops anti-aging therapies based on blood and its components - has revealed that blood plasma from young humans can rejuvenate the memory, cognition, and physical activity of older mice. The method developed to prove the fact opens up the possibilities of implementing a similar therapy for humans, according to Sakura Minami, a neuroscientist at the firm (whose name is the same as that legendary universal solvent coveted by alchemists).
Previously, Alkahest had successfully united the organisms of a young mouse and an old one, causing their bloodstreams to merge into a single, shared one. That experiment proved that the effect of the experiment was not the same for each specimen: the younger rodent began to show signs of brain aging, while the brain of its older partner rejuvenated. It was not the first time this had been done: the technique, called heterochronic parabiosis, had already been tried in the mid-1950s by Clive McCay of Cornell University, New York, to prove that old mouse cartilage could be rejuvenated by benefiting from young blood.
Now Alkahest has concluded, after a series of studies, that it is not all blood that is the key to rejuvenation: it is the blood plasma, the liquid part of the vital fluid, that rejuvenates the aforementioned aspects and even organs such as the liver, heart, and muscles.
Moreover, the firm has experimented with blood from 18-year-old humans to see if it can have the same effects in mice. The substance was injected into one-year-old rodents. This species, whose life expectancy normally amounts to two years, already begins to show signs of aging at one year, such as slower movements and memory failure.
After receiving two doses of human plasma weekly for three weeks, the performance of the tested mice was compared with that of three-month-old specimens and other rodents of the same age that did not receive the treatment.
The analysis found that the plasma did have rejuvenating effects: the old mice demonstrated similar movement in open spaces as younger mice; their memories were also improved, as evidenced by a better recall of a maze compared to untreated old mice. Primarily, cognition - and with it, memory - is largely benefited by the substance, according to Minami's findings, presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience in California, USA, in 2016.
This was further evidenced when the brains of the old mice - treated and untreated - were examined. Those that received plasma showed that they had been developing new neurons in the hippocampus, a process known as adult neurogenesis, which is crucial for learning and memory preservation (the decline in neurogenesis has also been linked to Alzheimer's disease and dementia). Hence, Alkahest has already initiated trials with young plasma in Alzheimer's patients.
Nature had always given clues about the benefits of blood and the plasma in it. And vampire bats are perhaps the main spokesmen for this. This species, which in its natural state feeds on the blood it sucks from the animals it finds in the vicinity of its habitat, manages to live up to 9 years, beyond the average two years of rodents of the same size.