Elizabeth Parrish, CEO of the biotech company BioViva, claims that her body's cells are 20 years younger after testing her company's age-reversing gene therapy on herself.
[...] Though details of the fast-tracked trial are unpublished, Parrish says it involved intravenous infusions of an engineered virus. That infectious germ carried the genetic blueprints for an enzyme called telomerase, which is found in humans. When spread to the body's cells, the enzyme generally extends the length of DNA caps on the ends of chromosomes, which naturally wear down with cellular aging. In a 2012 mouse study, Spanish researchers found that similar treatment could extend the lifespan of the rodents by as much as 20 percent.
Parrish claims that test results from March—which have not been published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal—reveal that her blood cells' telomeres have extended from 6.71 kilobases of DNA to 7.33 kilobases. The difference, she estimates, equates to a cellular age difference of 20 years.
Would you put your life on the line for your company?
Related Stories
AFP via the ABC reports on the death of Susannah Mushatt Jones, who had been the oldest living person. A spokesperson for the Gerontology Research Group (GRG) said of Ms. Jones:
She liked bacon and eggs, she liked to sleep a lot, she didn't drink and smoke, she did marry but she didn't have any kids.
She was born on 6 July 1899 in the U.S. state of Alabama, and died in a nursing home in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. On her 106th birthday she had said:
I surround myself with love and positive energy. That's the key to long life and happiness.
takyon: The current oldest living person is the last living person born in the 19th century 1800s.
Further information:
GRG World Supercentenarian Rankings List
Biography of Jeanne Calment, oldest person ever
Related stories:
Epigenetic Clock Controls Aging
CEO Tests "Crazy" Genetic Therapy on Herself, Claims it Added 20 Years of Life
(Score: 2) by SanityCheck on Tuesday May 03 2016, @09:01PM
It is exciting news because I'm young enough to wait till they get kinks out of it before using it.
One major kink being that you will probably suffer for 5 different cancers in the last 20 years. So till you can cure that, I'll wait on the sidelines.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by ikanreed on Tuesday May 03 2016, @09:14PM
The trick of that being that while, yes, cancer risks develop with age irrespective of telomere aging, thanks to increasing mutation, the body's defenses against cancer(and the nastier cancer treatments) are also healthier at younger ages.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 04 2016, @12:00AM
I'm old enough that "20 years, but with 5 cancers" sounds better than the alternative.
(Score: 2) by TheRaven on Wednesday May 04 2016, @10:50AM
sudo mod me up
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 05 2016, @12:17AM
no offense, but that seems very naive. how convenient that they are spending their precious resource dollars developing treatments instead of cures. Do any of these geniuses working on this ever stop to ask why they are being directed down a certain research path? I worked in a cancer research center and would listen to the researchers conversations. They were far more concerned with learning all about everything from all their harvested human data then they were about curing any damn thing. the financiers are concerned with making a profit on misery and the researchers are concerned with their own intellectual enrichment. I'm sure many have the best of intentions repressed somewhere but i doubt they have much control over the direction of research even if they felt like putting their job on the line. I don't hate them but there's a lot of wasted human potential happening right now as far as disease research goes and i don't think whitewashing helps anyone.
(Score: 5, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 03 2016, @09:02PM
Trust me, I'm 20 years younger! Details? Well ... those are trade secrets, but I'm 20 years younger! How can we know my cells and DNA are 20 years younger? Well ... those are trade secrets. Long term effects? You mean besides being 20 years younger?
In an unrelated story, a stampede of venture capitalists left several injured and unable to become 20 years younger.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by vux984 on Tuesday May 03 2016, @09:13PM
How can we know my cells and DNA are 20 years younger?
Its right in the summary. Her blood cell chromosome telomere lengths are up ~500 bases. The length of which they can presumably correlate to an age in normal people. So she has blood that, by looking at the telomere length one would predict, on average, belonged to someone 20 years younger than her.
The telomere length is a factor in aging; this is pretty well known, as the telomere caps prevent chromosome damage that manifests as 'aging'.
Several questions remain of course. Can aging actually be controlled/predicted by telomere length or does another factor now become the overriding issue? Is this treatment affecting all her cells or just her blood cells? Can the therapy be repeated extending life indefinitely? What is the relationship, if any, between telemere length and age onset diseases from cancers to dementia?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by ikanreed on Tuesday May 03 2016, @09:18PM
Many of the mutations that lead to cancers are often(and this is a wonderful irony here) attributable to the DNA that viruses have left behind in cells.
Given appropriate peer review and safety tests, and publicly available data on the risks of those tests, I'd take this. Which means I'll probably be waiting on the one-decade cohort results.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by takyon on Tuesday May 03 2016, @09:39PM
This development is interesting, but very unlikely to cover all aspects of aging:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategies_for_Engineered_Negligible_Senescence [wikipedia.org]
What's needed are additional therapies, or better yet nanobots to do the work of cleaning up junk that would cause diseases like Alzheimer's. This also does nothing to repair mutations in her cells.
We should definitely encourage more CEOs to test their own gene therapies on themselves. If they are confident in their products, they will be able to advance the field faster.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 03 2016, @09:55PM
Car analogy, is like winding backwards the odometer of a ten years old car and then say it's brand new.
(Score: 2) by mhajicek on Wednesday May 04 2016, @06:50AM
I think it's more lime replacing one component and calling the car new. Telomeres do serve a function.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 04 2016, @11:52AM
From that point of view, the car could last a bit more but not assured, as the car could break at an older and weak part not on the new shiny ones.
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Tuesday May 03 2016, @10:18PM
For Alzhimers there's promising research on innoculation against the misfolded proteins that kill off the brian cells.
(Score: 4, Funny) by meisterister on Tuesday May 03 2016, @10:49PM
Fine, save Brian's life first. That asshole really deserves it, doesn't he?
(May or may not have been) Posted from my K6-2, Athlon XP, or Pentium I/II/III.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 03 2016, @11:27PM
We, the People's Front of Judea, brackets, official, end brackets, do hereby convey our sincere fraternal and sisterly greetings to you, Brian, on this, the occasion of your martyrdom.
(Score: 2) by arslan on Wednesday May 04 2016, @02:51AM
Yes, as long as those tests are administered independently with controls that ensure the results are not faked.... otherwise there this snake oil I'd like to sell you that I have test on myself and guaranteed to work..
(Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday May 04 2016, @03:14AM
I have no money at stake in BioViva. If it fails, I don't lose. If it succeeds, I potentially win in the long term. The overseas trials that skirt U.S. regulations mentioned in TFA should be applauded, especially if the CEO is the test subject.
There is a deep mistrust of the biotech sector on Wall Street right now, so it is doubtful that the company has much to gain by lying. Let them try to lengthen some telomeres.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by butthurt on Wednesday May 04 2016, @08:21AM
Thomas Midgley convinced people that tetraethyl lead was safe, by drinking it. He didn't publicise the fact that he'd poisoned himself.
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Wednesday May 04 2016, @03:42PM
...nanobots to do the work of cleaning up junk that would cause diseases like Alzheimer's.
Nanobots are too big, they need to be more angstrom sized. You need nobots. [mcgrewbooks.com]
mcgrewbooks.com mcgrew.info nooze.org
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Non Sequor on Tuesday May 03 2016, @10:33PM
Injecting telomerase into every cell of a middle aged person sounds like a recipe for cancer to me. Cancer risk increases with age as somatic DNA damage accumulates. The fact that telomeres shorten means that one of your body's anti-cancer mechanisms gets stronger with age.
I'm not an oncologist, but I'd say there's an outside chance that in 10 years, she ends up having a particularly rare cancer or two separate cancers, or some other smoking gun indication that she's screwed up her body badly.
Write your congressman. Tell him he sucks.
(Score: 3, Flamebait) by frojack on Wednesday May 04 2016, @12:07AM
The fact that telomeres shorten means that one of your body's anti-cancer mechanisms gets stronger with age.
I'm not an oncologist
I was about to ask you about your first statement, but then you headed me off at the pass with your second.
Cuz really, I have no clue if your first statement has any basis in fact, but I assume you are an authority on your second.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by Non Sequor on Wednesday May 04 2016, @03:49AM
Uninformed speculation is free, but informed speculation is a premium service. Seriously, what do you expect?
I was just thinking about it as a statistical modeling problem. Each cell has certain genes that regulate division rates and also that detect faults and trigger apoptosis or other protection mechanisms. Telomeres set a clock (the Hayflick limit) on cell lines with accelerated division rates meaning that it generally can't become a sustained process without another mutation to activate telomerase. You have a combinatorial problem where there are certain mutation combinations that result in cancers and the Hayflick limit is one of the factors that controls the number of "trials" in a Bernoulli process.
Cancer incidence rates start ramping up in the 40s. So in my head, I'm just thinking, x% longer telomeres means she's looking for x% longer lifespan, but the cancer chance should also grow proportional to (1-(1-p)^(n*(1+x%))), for some p, assuming that there is no effect on the incidence rate of pre-cancerous mutations (I'm assuming a Poisson process for that).
Write your congressman. Tell him he sucks.
(Score: 2) by mhajicek on Wednesday May 04 2016, @06:55AM
So what's needed is a set of retroviruses carrying a fresh master copy of each gene to go around correcting errors.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 3, Interesting) by quixote on Wednesday May 04 2016, @03:39AM
Telomerase (the enzyme that lengthens telomeres) is normally only active in fetuses. Plenty of cancers are due to genes normally active in development of the embryo or fetus which manage to abnormally reactivate.
In old age, cellular division slows way down which may well be why we can grow old at all. Otherwise cancers would get us in our late 40s to 50s. So old age is pretty much the crappy side effects of trying to avoid full-blown cancer.
The big problem for genetic anti-aging research has been that all the clever ideas so far have cancer as a side effect. Which makes sense if old age symptoms are there because of the body's attempt to slow down cancer.
There's no indication and no logical reason to hope that this telomerase work has solved that problem. Quite the contrary. Improperly regulated telomerase genes are active in some cancers. And the researcher says nothing about that. She can't be so oblivious she doesn't know about it.
I think the commenter upthread who mentioned the likely crush of venture capitalists throwing money at the company probably figured out what she was really trying to prove.
(Score: 2) by Non Sequor on Wednesday May 04 2016, @04:02AM
Wikipedia says that 90% of tumors involve Telomerase activation.
The article mentions that a study of this treatment on mice improved average longevity by 20%. I can't help but wonder if mice are an appropriate model given that I wouldn't expect animals with short lifespans to accumulate the same level of somatic DNA damage as humans.
The article also says that she did this in a clinic in Colombia and one of her company's research advisors resigned over it. I have a feeling she's completely nuts.
Write your congressman. Tell him he sucks.
(Score: 2) by TheRaven on Wednesday May 04 2016, @10:53AM
sudo mod me up
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Wednesday May 04 2016, @03:28PM
I don't know what my telomere lengths are, but when I was 61 they had a health screening at work, and my vitals and blood sugar were those of a healthy forty year old. They couldn't believe I never exercised and led a sedentary life. Was her blood tested before the treatments? If not, those tests afterwardsdidn't show jack shit, it could simply be normal for her.
mcgrewbooks.com mcgrew.info nooze.org
(Score: 2) by vux984 on Wednesday May 04 2016, @04:40PM
Was her blood tested before the treatments?
Presumably yes, since, as per the summary they had increased ~500 base pairs.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 03 2016, @10:54PM
Wonder if the Theranos broad is invested in this one?
(Score: 2) by Dunbal on Tuesday May 03 2016, @09:24PM
selection bias
(Score: 3, Insightful) by ikanreed on Tuesday May 03 2016, @09:37PM
I mean as long as they're not publishing in a peer reviewed journal with open access to the data, the selection bias might as well be for selecting straight from their ass.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday May 03 2016, @09:48PM
There's plenty of time to publish in a peer-reviewed journal, preferably with a larger group of subjects. The CEO took a step which could make human trials easier to get approved.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by ikanreed on Tuesday May 03 2016, @09:56PM
Oh, I didn't understand that was the point of the stunt. I thought it was a "buy our viruses" stunt.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Wednesday May 04 2016, @01:35AM
But this is not really new, scientists and doctors have been doing this sort of thing for a long time.
http://io9.gizmodo.com/5769654/10-scientists-who-experimented-on-themselves [gizmodo.com]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-experimentation_in_medicine [wikipedia.org]
It could backfire, or it could change nothing, but I don't see a path where it makes human trials easier, even if scientists eat their own dog food.
After all, "Not Being Deadly" is just the first criteria, and one that you generally don't have to use human trials to prove. We got mice for that. So I don't know if this makes anything easier, because it looks like a cheap trick, minus the music.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday May 04 2016, @01:44AM
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/12/science/testing-of-some-deadly-diseases-on-mice-mislead-report-says.html [nytimes.com]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 05 2016, @05:56AM
It's impossible to tell what proportion of that is due to the general inability of the biomed research system to filter out BS, or due to overreliance on mice/rats. It sounds to me like another excuse for low research standards, but for sure it could also be due to the fact mice are very different. Then you have to ask why this is only being figured out so many decades later though.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 03 2016, @09:35PM
I didn't open it
(Score: 2) by jdavidb on Tuesday May 03 2016, @09:38PM
From what I understand, drinking soda has been demonstrated to shorten telomeres, and there's much more evidence for that than there is yet for this treatment's benefits. So, if we were to get really serious about life extension, maybe we would want to all stop drinking soda.
(Looks at empty cans on desk. Sighs. Sobs.)
ⓋⒶ☮✝🕊 Secession is the right of all sentient beings
(Score: 3, Disagree) by takyon on Tuesday May 03 2016, @09:44PM
You don't need an aging study to know soda is bad for you.
Telomere lengthening is the low-hanging fruit of anti-aging/life extension therapy. Maybe this will result in a few more years of healthy lifespan, but "adding 20 years of life" is just a popsci press claim, and more therapies [wikipedia.org] including nanobots will be needed to put a real dent in aging or reverse it completely.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 03 2016, @09:45PM
> ... maybe we would want to all stop drinking soda.
I resent it when you present this in the form of the "wife beating question".
The last 'soda' of any kind that I drank was about 10 years ago. Water, fruit and a little fruit juice (very little, it is also very sweet) keeps me hydrated nicely.
(Score: 2) by dyingtolive on Tuesday May 03 2016, @10:26PM
Serious question: What exactly in the soda is the culprit here? Odds are it's elsewhere in the average American's diet too.
Don't blame me, I voted for moose wang!
(Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday May 03 2016, @11:21PM
Sucrose or high fructose corn syrup.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 03 2016, @11:44PM
One of the preservatives used in the majority of sodas is supposedly telemere damaging.
The High Fructose is supposedly damaging to the endocrine system.
I am sure wikipedia or a research journal on biology/medicine could give better insight on if this is true or false, but those are the details as far as I have been (mis)informed.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by EvilSS on Tuesday May 03 2016, @09:40PM
Well, at least for the real zombie apocalypse patient zero has the courtesy to identify herself ahead of time.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday May 03 2016, @09:45PM
But do you have the courtesy to stock up on sawed-off shotguns?
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 03 2016, @10:43PM
If it follows the expected trend, something will go wrong and give her superpowers, but with ugly trade-offs, and she'll become an unwilling superhero.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Fnord666 on Wednesday May 04 2016, @03:59AM
Well, at least for the real zombie apocalypse patient zero has the courtesy to identify herself ahead of time.
I expect patient zero to come out of this company's research based on this headline.
Biotech Company To Attempt Revitalizing Nervous Systems of Brain-Dead Patients
(Score: 5, Informative) by GungnirSniper on Tuesday May 03 2016, @09:55PM
Jonas Salk, Albert Hoffman, and others tested treatments on themselves. [mentalfloss.com] It certainly is a way to show confidence in a treatment.
Tips for better submissions to help our site grow. [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by dingus on Wednesday May 04 2016, @05:44AM
Salk was involved in the public clinical trials, yes. It does show confidence, it does not show competence any more than injecting any other person with the magic serum does.
(Score: 2) by GungnirSniper on Wednesday May 04 2016, @03:59PM
Good sir, he signed himself and his family up:
Now that is marketing genius.
Tips for better submissions to help our site grow. [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 04 2016, @04:22PM
How can you tell people that they need to vaccinate their kids if you aren't willing to do the same?
Salk vaccinated his son in their kitchen before anything was deployed.
(Score: 2) by dingus on Thursday May 05 2016, @01:33AM
That's not in the article.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 03 2016, @10:13PM
Someone posted the ad from her company to youtube.
Looks like they are calling it regenerate. [youtube.com]
I'm sure there will not be any side-effects.
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Tuesday May 03 2016, @11:28PM
None at all..
Three hands?
Every cell goes lumpy? Worse?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7fy4BM4fmU [youtube.com]
Quality is more important than quantity, anyway. Western countries are already disproportionately spending on end-of-life health costs. Maybe we should concentrate on having better lives first?
http://www.thirteen.org/bid/sb-howmuch.html [thirteen.org]
http://kff.org/medicare/report/the-rising-cost-of-living-longer-analysis-of-medicare-spending-by-age-for-beneficiaries-in-traditional-medicare/ [kff.org]
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 04 2016, @02:37PM
You rat bastard, my keyboard is dripping with coffee thanks to you! I had forgotten about that...trailer?
(Score: 1) by Osamabobama on Tuesday May 03 2016, @11:44PM
My first impression is that this is a great way for the CEO to fund her retirement. I'm sure some portion of her compensation is linked to stock price, and news like this is tailor made to increase that price.
Additionally, if you are going to live 20 years longer, you'd better think seriously about how to fund retirement.
Appended to the end of comments you post. Max: 120 chars.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 04 2016, @12:24AM
Now if only BioViva were a publicly traded company you might have a clue to stand on.
(Score: 2) by devlux on Tuesday May 03 2016, @11:51PM
Ars says she's 45, I would have pegged her for 50.
http://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Screen-Shot-2016-04-28-at-10.15.40-AM-640x328.png [arstechnica.net]
Definitely getting to the point where making babies out of the question IRL, and whatever she did she looks older than her age, so I dunno.
(Score: 2) by devlux on Tuesday May 03 2016, @11:53PM
My bad, for some reason I read "younger" despite it saying clearly "added years to her life".
I guess that's possible. I've been advocating telomere tinkering for fun and profit for awhile now, but thought they might try it on rats or something first.
(Score: 3, Touché) by takyon on Wednesday May 04 2016, @02:28AM
They did. Try reading the summary.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by Fnord666 on Wednesday May 04 2016, @03:37AM
My bad, for some reason I read "younger" despite it saying clearly "added years to her life".
No, you remembered correctly.
Elizabeth Parrish, CEO of the biotech company BioViva, claims that her body's cells are 20 years younger after testing her company’s age-reversing gene therapy on herself.
(Score: 2) by devlux on Wednesday May 04 2016, @03:50AM
Dang, something is really off with my reading comprehension skills tonight. Must be all the cinco de mayo prep my neighbors are doing.
Thanks for catching that.
(Score: 2) by Appalbarry on Wednesday May 04 2016, @02:13AM
Hmmmph. Until she can deliver real proof I'll stick to my green coffee beans.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 04 2016, @03:47AM
Haha, the last thing we need is more geezers on this overpopulated ball of mud.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 04 2016, @04:34AM
"her blood cells' telomeres have extended from 6.71 kilobases of DNA to 7.33 kilobases"!= "Added 20 Years of Life"
First off this is some kind of average presented without error bars. Second, it is almost surely cherry picked.
Third, lets assume those exact numbers are correct. Perhaps the stem cell pool for blood cells remains largely dormant until needed, so we would see this if the treatment killed off cells, necessitating dipping into that previously dormant pool at a larger rate than usual. Perhaps a larger proportion of those cells they sampled are cancerous. That is just two alternative explanations indicating a deleterious effect of this treatment I thought of in less than a second after reading this.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 04 2016, @05:14AM
It increases by 2 billion for each 15 years of life extension. It is hard to understand this fact but go to minute 23 of this informative video and it will be crystal clear.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FACK2knC08E [youtube.com]
(Score: 2) by mhajicek on Wednesday May 04 2016, @07:06AM
Fortunately old people tend to not eat very much.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 05 2016, @12:14AM
Thanks for pointing that out, the problem is being taken care of.
(Score: 2) by mtrycz on Wednesday May 04 2016, @08:55AM
I mean in the age when the gigants like Apple and Google promote digital learning to infants, and majority of their employees can and do send their kids to nature-first disconnected schools, you'd think there's something fishy about it. Just as if they have the cognition about the perils of going full-digital, expecially at a young age.
I'm not really into this story, but yeah, showing that what you say is good for others is also good for you is, well, the least you can do.
In capitalist America, ads view YOU!
(Score: 3, Insightful) by snufu on Wednesday May 04 2016, @09:16AM
In a sunny cheerful voice: "Added 20 Years to my life!"
TV pharma ad disclaimer voice: "May also add superfluous toes and cause permanent voices in your head."
(Score: 3, Funny) by Bot on Wednesday May 04 2016, @11:03AM
I am in of testing the software for Regenerate, I can leak the logs.
Regenerate 1.0 alpha b302
Found interfaces
Injection levels OK
Begin legal disclaimer session
"Welcome to the regenerative procedure, please confirm: you have read the TOS"
USER> Y
"You are aware that there is approximately a 0.03% of procedure failing rate involving probable grave dangers to your health"
USER> Y
"You are aware that those 20 more years to your life are not guaranteed to be any more happy than the life you already have"
USER> Y
"In particular, you are aware that you will be having to deal with the presence of systemd in this universe, for 20. more. years."
USER> ^C^C^C^C^C^D^D
ERROR> User cancelled the procedure.
Account abandoned.