SciTech Daily calls it a revolutionary approach, offering a potential alternative to gene therapy in reversing aging.
This discovery is expected to help change the treatment of age-related diseases, enhance regenerative medicine and potentially help people achieve the dream of whole-body rejuvenation.
New method has the potential to help people become younger just by taking a few pills - Illustration from SCITECH DAILY
The work was led by Harvard Medical School (part of Harvard University), with the participation of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the University of Maine (USA).
They relied on Yamanaka factors, which are expressions of specific genes that can transform adult cells into induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), which won the Nobel Prize.
Taking it a step further, the US team searched for molecules that could simultaneously reverse cellular aging and rejuvenate human cells. Ultimately, they identified six chemical combinations that could return nuclear and cytoplasmic proteins and genome-wide transcriptional profiles to a youthful state in less than a week.
Research steps based on many different organs in the mouse body including optic nerve, brain, kidney and muscle have achieved miraculous results.
In their latest move, they improved monkeys' eyesight in an experiment in April 2023, according to a recent publication in the journal Aging.
These findings could pave the way for regenerative medicine and the ability to rejuvenate the entire body, as well as dramatically change the way aging and injuries are treated in general.
According to Professor David A. Sinclair from the Department of Genetics and Co-Director of the Paul F. Glenn Center for the Biology of Aging at Harvard Medical School, until recently, humans have only been able to slow down the aging process. This new method would be a real reversal.
The next big advantage is that it is a chemical approach – one that could come in the form of a simple pill that can heal wounds faster, restore vision and cure other diseases of aging – rather than using controversial gene editing technology.
After the success with monkeys, the research team is planning to move on to clinical trials, which means testing directly on humans.
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