Gene therapy againt aging

[Mike Petersen]

Now this sounds interesting

http://bioviva-science.com/2016/04/21/first-gene-therapy-successful-against-human-aging/

I ask myself how exactly do they make the telomers longer and who is sure, there won´t be some terrible side effects?

[dale]

It is REALLY INTERESTING...

Liz Parrish also go's by the titles of CEO, and "Patient 0" for anti aging gene therapy.
I think she should be declared "DIYBIO SuperHero 1" or "Queen of DIYBIO" :-)

There are some interesting interviews on youtube. Probably the best is:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=toNjsvbX0f0

And an excellent Canadian podcast on the Singularity Weblog here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTaX_52EIq4

Maybe "Pioneer of the century!" (if all go's well)  :-)

[Koeng]

At first glace, I am skeptical of the results. Long telomeres are associated with some diseases. Short telomeres are associated with some diseases. 

There is a *correlation* with telomeres and aging. From what I've read, causation hasn't been established, meaning that lengthening telomeres most likely won't do much. If there's any research to contradict this, my opinion can change, but from the current papers I've read my opinion is is that not much will happen. It'll probably do a lot of nothing. 

-Koeng 

[Reason]

Telomerase gene therapy in mice extends life modestly: there are years
of pretty robust results to demonstrate that. Average telomere length
appears to be a reflection of aging, most likely not a significant
contributer to aging. It is a poor measure, as the trend downward with
age is statistical over populations. Average telomere length is some
function of stem cell activity (delivering new cells with long
telomeres) and cell division rates (shortening telomeres with each
division). Stem cell activity declines with aging. Average telomere
length is presently measured in white blood cells, which are going to
have a whole lot of influences on cell division and replacement rates
that don't exist in other tissues, due to immune system reactions to
circumstances. Telomerase is clearly doing a lot of other things beyond
telomere lengthening. Look at the work suggesting it is acting as a
mitochondrial antioxidant, for example, or other cryptic activities.

The present consensus is that telomerase therapies in mice extend life
through increased stem cell and/or immune activity. These telomerase
therapies are clearly heading in the direction of human trials one way
or another, given the results to date in mice, and the determined
support of the research groups doing this. Mice have very different
telomere dynamics, however, and there are concerns regarding cancer risk
in humans. Trying it in dogs or primates would be the next safe thing to
do - move to a mammalian species with telomere/telomerase dynamics that
are closer to ours.

There is an argument that runs along these lines: telomerase gene
therapy is just (primarily) another way of triggering old stem cells to
get back to work, and therefore vis a vis cancer and risk should fall in
the same ballpark as stem cell therapies carried out over the past
fifteen years, and therefore full steam ahead because all of that work
produced far less cancer that was feared. Prudence would suggest trying
it out in something other than mice first, but I suspect the sudden ease
of gene therapy means that this will be bypassed by the adventurous.

(I'm totally in favor of adventure when it comes to gene therapies for
follistatin/myostatin - I think the risk situation there is pretty much
as low as it can get prior to hundreds or thousands of enhanced human
patients. I'm more cautious on the cancer and telomerase front; I think
more data there would be desirable before I stepped up to try it out).

[dale]

My comprehension of telomeres as they relate to aging follows (and please correct me if I'm wrong as I am not a biologist).
Telomeres are the endcaps of chromosomes. During cell replication the replication mechanism latches onto the end of the telomere to begin copying the chromosome. The problem is that those last few latched telomeres are not replicated hence the new cells telomeres are shorter. This is not a problem until several more replications (Hayflick Limit = 50 or so) where there aren't enough telomeres for the replication mech to latch onto. This results in cell death or damaged replication yielding faulty genes that make faulty proteins & enzymes = AGING.

Therefore extending telomeres ---> happy, correct replications :-)

[Mega [Andreas Stuermer]]

Dale, this is their main function yes. And limited number of replications ensure that the cells die before accumulating too much mutatipns (ie cancer).

I hope she also had p53 genetherapy, that would be a pretty pretty strong protection against cancer.

Did anyone find the exact protocol she did to her?

[Mega [Andreas Stuermer]]

Also, was her telomerase inducible or always on?

The latter one seems a lot safer

[Mega [Andreas Stuermer]]

The interview is really interesting!
~ "Every day 100'000 people die, and they could test these therapies to make a difference for the ones who come after"

But am I the only one whom she reminds of Davy Jones? ~ "Are you afraid of dying, sailor? I got a way out"

[dale]

The Scientist did a phone interview and posted this article on 4/26/16 explaining more

http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/45947/title/First-Data-from-Anti-Aging-Gene-Therapy/&utm_campaign=NEWSLETTER_TS_The-Scientist-Daily_2016&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=28904420&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8owF_7-ZQDL9jZboiO7HMbp_BaV1HL6214eBdn5L8dWUg1Qf7VMqJrTXVLYLCCLtnHOdn_9B5hxbmISdHncrVrQ29z_Q&_hsmi=28904420

On Friday, April 22, 2016 at 8:44:32 AM UTC-5, Mike Petersen wrote:

[CodeWarrior]

Perhaps, perhaps not. This study demonstrated life extension in mice with no obvious cancer increase. At the end of the day interviews and press releases are not research. I want to see what the paper on this research (if / when it's published) says.

[Rebecca Swett]

I still have yet to see ANY actual evidence. There's only a press release at this point. I'll believe they did it when I see actual data. Actually, I'll believe it when an external group validate their work. And even then, I'll only believe what the data (presumably) shows. Which is that they were able to lengthen her telomeres. What that means in the long run is something that remains to be seen. We already went through this about 8 years ago with the Geron Corporation, who abruptly shuttered all their aging research with telomerase and never released the data on it. 

[Mike Petersen]

Wow, this sounds interesting. Thank you, dale :)

[Mike Petersen]

Thank you for the great explanation :)

[Dakota Hamill]

Or there is Theranos, where unverified data and grandios claims and press releases leads to a 9 billion dollar valuation evaporating. 

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[Matthew Harbowy]

Seconded! Liz Parrish is the next Liz Holmes. See: https://www.quora.com/How-can-the-human-genome-be-used-to-predict-how-long-a-person-will-live/answer/Matt-Harbowy?__snids__=1643111821&__nsrc__=1&__filter__=all

-matt

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[dale]

Here is a relevant article without a crude mangling of statistics:

   http://www.longevityreporter.org/blog/2016/4/23/anti-aging-gene-therapy-has-the-time-arrived-for-true-anti-aging-medicine

On Friday, April 22, 2016 at 8:44:32 AM UTC-5, Mike Petersen wrote:

[Matthew Harbowy]

It would be helpful if people created original content. A rewriting of the press release without adding a single iota of new information is less than helpful- and trying to ad-hominem critique me with such a reposting is trolling.

If you don't like my math, critique my math with better math. I've spotted at least one glaring error in my own post since I posted it- it's a thought in progress. 

The point of my post was argue science with data, not polemic. 

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[dale]

Been wondering why you said always on seems safer? Seems to me having the ability to turn it off if things go bad would safer. I haven't seen any tech data on her situation but I hope someone posts if they release it.

[dale]

I too hope Bio-Viva publishes data on their experiment.
And I sympathize with your view on Geron... I lost a few bucks on their stock a few years back. I don't know that it was because their Telomere concept was wrong though. Their burn rate was too high... spending a lot on research with no income producing product in sight. I thought they were out of business but it appears they are still on the NASDAQ and doing cancer research?.... but I still haven't seen an income statement :-)