41% life extension? US scientists research breakthrough: 30-day spray gene therapy, reverse aging
"Gene therapy once a month for half a year increased life span by 41.4% and muscle strength by 33%." This is a new development of a study at Rutgers Medical School in New Jersey, USA.
The length of life is "determined" by genes, and genes can be "changed"? From longevity gene research, to gene programming and gene therapy, researchers have cracked the genetic code step by step to overcome diseases and prolong life. Genetic engineering is also regarded as a "big plan for people's livelihood" by many countries.
01 41% life extension? Continue to administer "nasal spray" for half a year to reverse the state of the body
Dabbu Jaijyan and other researchers from Rutgers School of Medicine in New Jersey, USA, successfully "extended" 41% of the experimental group's life with monthly inhalation of gene therapy in a mammalian experiment. The research results were published in the international authoritative journal "PNAS".
In the experiment, Dabbu Jaijyan's research team divided the 18-month-old mice into two groups, and performed gene "therapy" on the two experimental groups by nasal inhalation and intraperitoneal injection. The granzyme reverse transcriptase (TERT) gene is mainly used to lengthen the DNA telomeres of mice, and the second group is the follistatin (FST) gene, which is mainly used to strengthen muscles. It is implemented once a month for half a year.
The results of the study showed that both methods extended the lifespan of the mice, and the spray administration even increased the lifespan of the mice in the first group by 41.4%, compared with only 32.5% in the second group.
And the first group using telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT), 24-month-old mice, after a six-month experimental cycle, the functioning of various organs in the body was reversed, which is equivalent to returning to young adults. The researchers revealed that this youthful transition was associated with six-fold longer telomeres in mouse cells.
02 The "Telomere Theory" confirmed again
According to the science research team of Fudan University, Shishi Pai: "Cell telomeres are called "life clocks", and their length represents the length of human lifespan to a certain extent. The continuous division of cells causes the telomeres to slowly wear out, making gene transmission possible. Confusion, this is the principle of the aging of the body.
In this study, the details of the use of "telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT)" and the method of nasal spray, which are closely related to telomeres, were announced, which immediately attracted the attention of the biological community.
David Sinclair, a veteran of the anti-aging field and a professor at Harvard Medical School, tweeted his support and couldn't hide his excitement.
Sinclair himself has been studying the mechanism of cell telomeres to delay aging for many years. He used the human endogenous substance "Coenzyme 1" (the core substance of "Celere") to extend the length of telomeres and successfully extended the lifespan of mice by 28%. His research results were published in the top journal "Cell" in 2013.
Different from gene therapy, this research has entered the stage of mature technology landing after nearly ten years of development. As early as the early days of the research, Sinclair revealed that the rich in Silicon Valley kept asking about the progress of the research. In the early days, its research results were only secretly enjoyed by a small number of ultra-rich.
In 2017, Japan, which is increasingly aging, broadcast related molecular documentaries on NHK TV, which attracted wide attention. Technological achievements such as "Selori" have also begun to enter Asia, and are not only regarded by the Japanese scientific community as a "normalized means to deal with the aging crisis", but have also achieved strong domestic responses through domestic platforms such as Jing-Dong. Sichuan University, Peking University, Tsinghua University, Guangzhou Institute of Physical Education and other domestic colleges and universities have all carried out relevant clinical experiments, attracting heavy investment from leaders such as Li Ka-shing and Pan Mouyi. The former even spent 22 million Hong Kong dollars to invest in related companies just to obtain a stable supply.
Compared with the highly market-oriented technological achievements represented by "Celeray", gene therapy is still immature, and it is still in the stage of animal experiments, and many countries have stricter supervision on it. In order to bypass the supervision, the clinical trial of "telomerase needle" in gene therapy was chosen to be secretly conducted in Colombia, a small South American country, but the "astronomical price" of up to 1 million US dollars is destined to be only open to a small number of rich people for the time being.
However, with the emergence of forms such as nasal spray, the academic community believes that it is expected to accelerate the process of popularization of gene therapy and develop towards a more convenient and popular trend.
03 The upper limit of life expectancy is expected to be broken: live to 120 years old
Steven Chu, a Chinese-American physicist and Nobel laureate, once said: "Bioengineering in the 21st century is the study of genetic engineering and protein engineering." We are expected to treat major diseases caused by genetic defects through gene programming, replacement, and various therapies, thereby prolonging healthy life.
So far, human beings have witnessed the development and use of countless biotechnological methods: AI decoding can predict 98.5% of human protein structures, GP2 vaccine reduces the recurrence rate of breast cancer patients to 0%, hyperbaric oxygen chamber, Celeron exogenous supplements. Iterative innovation of aging control technologies such as anti-aging agents.
Standing at the new starting point of these technological highlands, maybe it is really as Sinclair predicted, "The breakthrough of 120-year-old life expectancy leaves only 10 to 20 years of progress."