Scientists may have made progress in one of humanity’s biggest quests for the fountain of youth. Harvard University researchers have found a concoction of medications that could be blended into a tablet to stop ageing. The team found six chemical concoctions that “by several years” turned back the hands of time in mouse and human skin cells. The discovery was celebrated as a first step towards “affordable whole-body rejuvenation”. Dr David Sinclair, a molecular biologist at Harvard Medical School and a paper co-author, shared the findings on Twitter and said that human trials could start within the coming year.
A Harvard professor and other experts have cautioned that the study is “mostly hype and preliminary.” Previous attempts to slow the ageing process could only be accomplished through the pricey and time-consuming process known as genome editing. Millions of dollars would be required to launch the process on the market. The most recent study on anti-ageing genes expands on earlier work that was published in the journal Ageing. According to the study, the production of particular genes known as Yamanaka factors can change adult cells into youthful cells.
All six of the mixtures examined by the team showed signs of reverse ageing in mouse and human cell cultures
The Nobel Prize-winning finding made others wonder if it might be possible to stop cells from ageing without making them excessively young and prone to cancer. In the most recent study, researchers searched through millions of combinations of chemicals to find those that may regenerate human cells and stop biological ageing. It was discovered that six chemical concoctions might rejuvenate aged cells in less than a week. All six of the mixtures examined by the team showed signs of anti-ageing in mouse and human cell cultures. According to researchers, the effects of this four-day treatment are comparable to the overall transformation observed after a full year of regenerative therapy as documented in a 2019 study that similarly concentrated on restoring epigenetic information.
Changes in age were assessed using rodent and human transcriptomic clocks, which use gene expression data to predict biological age. Dr Sinclair said: “This discovery offers the potential to reverse ageing with a single pill, with applications ranging from improving eyesight to effectively treating age-related diseases.” But not everyone is sold on the study. Some biologists say the researchers should have known that de-ageing the cells caused a decrease in age-related health problems in mice. Matt Kaeberlein said: “These cocktails they describe here might even have useful therapeutic properties. But there is no direct data in this paper providing evidence for such.
“We’ve previously shown age reversal is possible using gene therapy to turn on embryonic genes”
“They should have validated at least one of these cocktails in an animal and shown improvements in age-related health metrics or lifespan before making these claims about effects on biological ageing.” Sharing the paper on Twitter and in a press release, Dr Sinclair hailed it as “a breakthrough discovery.” He tweeted: “We’ve previously shown age reversal is possible using gene therapy to turn on embryonic genes. Now we show it’s possible with chemical cocktails, a step towards affordable whole-body rejuvenation.”
In recent years, Dr Sinclair has made headlines for himself as he pursues his search for eternal youth. He says he has aged ten years younger. In a research published in 2020, Sinclair and his team described how they restored younger versions of ageing cells in mice. He told CNN that “it’s a permanent reset, as far as we can tell,” and that “we think it may be a universal process that could be applied across the body to reset our age.”