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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 Though details of the fast-tracked trial are unpublished, Parrish says it involved intravenous infusions of an engineered virus.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?
(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