Tsinghua University has made another contribution! Nobel Prize-winning results bring cells back to 0 years old, or open a new era of life
Humans have never stopped exploring the secrets of life.
Recently, a research team from Tsinghua University published a paper in the world's top journal "Nature", announcing the discovery of a "magic potion" that can reprogram mouse adult cells into totipotent stem cells. In the scientific community, totipotent stem cells are regarded as the "starting point of life", which can differentiate into any tissue and organ, form a fertilized egg and develop into a complete living individual. This means that old cells can be "returned to 0 years old".
In nature, the development of a fertilized egg into a mature organism is irreversible. After years of scientific research, Chinese scientists have finally broken this impossibility. After 6 years of education at Tsinghua University, 3 kinds of small molecule combinations TAW were screened out from thousands of chemical drugs, and finally the aged cells were "returned to the mother's womb". The three kinds of small molecules are:
TTNPB (retinoic acid receptor agonist);
1-Azakenpaullone (inhibitor of glycogen synthase kinase-3β);
WS6 (beta cell inducing proliferation agent.)
Afterwards, the team performed rigorous tests on the TAW-induced cells at the transcriptomic, epigenetic and metabolomic levels, confirming the high similarity of the cells to mouse embryonic-stage cells—hundreds of aged cells were similar to totipotent stem cells Genes commonly found in are turned on.
In order to further the practical application effect of TAW-induced totipotent stem cells, the researchers injected the induced cells into early mouse embryos to verify their potential to develop into fetuses, yolk sacs, and placenta. While the pluripotent stem cells in previous experiments can only develop into fetuses, the biggest breakthrough of Tsinghua University is that the cells can be reversed to an earlier life stage.
In 2006, Japanese scientist Shinya Yamanaka transferred four transcription factors into mouse cells through viral vectors, and successfully transformed mouse skin cells into younger, more differentiated pluripotent stem cells, and won the 2012 Nobel Prize for his work. prize. Shinya Yamanaka is also known as the "grandfather" of cell reversal research.
Yamanaka's research has achieved a breakthrough from 0 to 1, but there are two bottlenecks that limit the transformation of research into applications:
First, the reversed pluripotent stem cells only have partial differentiation potential and cannot develop into complete biological individuals like totipotent stem cells;
Second, the early technology integrates host genes through exogenous viral vectors, which has a high risk of carcinogenesis.
Tsinghua University has made a breakthrough in chemical reprogramming technology with higher safety and developed a combination of TAW small molecules, whether it is the actual cell reversal effect or clinical application value, which is further than the research of Shinya Yamanaka in Japan. "Nobel Prize" achievement.
In recent years, under the global anti-aging trend, not only top scientific research teams, but also the world's top consortia have also taken a fancy to the attractive prospect of cell reprogramming. In January of this year, 58-year-old Jeff Bezos, the world's richest man and founder of Amazon, invested $3 billion in anti-aging technology startup Altos Labs. The latter research direction directly points to epigenetic reprogramming technology, and employs an ultra-luxurious scientific research team including Nobel Prize-winning Shinya Yamanaka, determined to break through the aging process and bring cells back to a youthful state.
However, as far as the current research process is concerned, whether it is the breakthrough discovery of Tsinghua University or Bezos' Altos Labs, cell reprogramming technology is still in the most basic cell experiment stage, and it is still a long way from clinical experiments, not to mention The technology is commercialized. However, Japanese scientists have taken a different approach by activating cellular energy, bypassing the temporarily difficult step of cellular reprogramming.
Research from authoritative journals such as Nature and Cell shows that the patented Cellrator technology developed by it targets animal or human cells to activate disabled cells and provide energy for cells, thereby delaying the aging process of mammals. Cellar-like achievements have been confirmed in studies by Tsinghua University and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and many old indicators such as multi-tissue fibers, collagen synthesis, and inhibition of aging gene expression have performed well.
However, limited by the cost of craftsmanship, the price of a bottle of Celerui in JD.com and other channels is several thousand dollars, which is equivalent to the down payment of a house in a third-tier city a year, which is far beyond the reach of ordinary consumer groups. Therefore, it mainly targets the ultra-high-end consumer market, and its users are mainly concentrated in high-net-worth groups in first-tier cities.
There is such a scene in "Journey to the West". Sun Wukong pulls out a handful of hairs, and the hairs turn into hundreds of monkeys. This research by Tsinghua University may open the door to the theory of "hair-to-monkeys", helping old cells return to life and opening up A whole new field of life-creation research.
Since the 16th century, life science has formed a special discipline classification in the 20th century. With the rapid development of technology in the past 100 years, it has become closer to its ultimate problem - longevity and immortality. In the past, antibiotics, vaccines and ever-improving public health management have allowed our life expectancy to jump from the 40s before World War II to the 70s today.
At present, with the continuous emergence of emerging discoveries and technologies such as Tsinghua cell reprogramming, O2ark hyperbaric oxygen chamber, and Cellrator, we will finally solve the ultimate problem of life science and usher in an era of longevity that belongs to each of us.