A U.C. Berkeley team has rejuvenated geriatric stem cells, restoring their youthful vigor and ability to rebuild damaged muscle tissue. With a simple injection of bioengineered antibodies, crotchety mice were able to recover from strenuous exercise and injury as well as spry young mice. The trick? The antibodies modified how adult stem cells respond to natural chemical signals that trigger aging.

 Irina Conboy, assistant professor of bioengineering and an investigator at the Berkeley Stem Cell Center and at the California Institute for Quantitative Biosciences (QB3), led the research team. She noticed that adult mice stem cells, when placed in “young” blood, behaved like young stem cells. They kicked into overdrive, dividing and repairing. Conversely, young stem cells slowed to a crawl when placed in “old” blood.

The researcher discovered that the cells were responding to two natural chemical signals via a set of receptors. The first receptor, called Notch, activates elated cell replication. The second, a receptor for the protein TGF-beta, sets off a chain reaction that slows cell division. Too much Notch and cells can divide too quickly, hastening tumor and cancer growth. Too much TGF-beta and adult stem cells slow down; cells succumb to the ravages of aging.

Conboy and her team knocked out the “aging pathway” that halts cell replication using a method of RNA interference and a custom antibody. The result: Old mice with the stem cells of young mice.

More research needs to be carried out before any such methods can be used on humans. Conboy fears that interrupting the aging pathway could lead to hyperactive cell division and increased rates of cancer. 

Link to U.C. Berkeley article.

In the future, legions of centenarians will romp through fields of flowers like spry teenagers, unimpeded by the ravages of old age. Or at least that’s what pharmaceutical juggernaut GlaxoSmithKline is betting on. The drug company recently spent $720 million on Sirtris Pharmaceuticals, a young upstart in the field of anti-aging research. The burgeoning company’s premiere drug is called “resveratrol” and it mimics the preserving effects of severe calorie restriction.

Cutting back on calories has been shown to extend life spans in everything from yeast to humans. Resveratrol targets a gene that becomes active during such sparse times, reenergizing fatigued mitochondria. The cell powerhouses are susceptible to corrosive oxidation by free radicals, the destructive byproducts of burning chemical energy in our bodies. This corrosion is thought to be at the feebly beating heart of all aging-related ailments, from heart disease to dementia. Repair mitochondria and reverse aging—or so the theory goes.

Brandon Keim of Wired News spoke to David Sinclair, cofounder of  Sirtris, at the World Science Festival Monday. Sinclair said resveratrol is in phase two of clinical trials and should hit the market within four or five years. The price for virtual immortality? $4 to $5 a pill, said Sinclair.

Link to Wired Science article

Link to Sirtris Pharmaceuticals