Testing anti-aging therapy

It is quite possible that one day elderly people will have the opportunity to use a new therapy developed by American scientists to regain their youthful appearance.

A research team at Harvard University hopes their technique will help improve the quality of life for older people in the future. Photo: softpedia.com.

Ronald DePinho, a researcher at Harvard University in the US, and his colleagues believe that reducing the length of telomere strands at the ends of chromosomes is one way to slow down the aging process, the Guardian reports.

Telomeres are tiny structures that play a crucial role in the biological aging process. They are located at the ends of chromosomes. Each time a cell divides, the length of a telomere decreases slightly. Eventually, when telomeres shorten to a certain point, the cell dies. Elizabeth Blackburn, a Nobel laureate in Medicine and a cell biologist of American and Australian descent, likened telomeres to the ends of shoelaces. When the ends break or come loose, the shoelaces begin to fray. In most cells, telomere length gradually decreases with age.

DePinho's team used genetic engineering techniques to create mice lacking telomerase, an enzyme that prevents the gradual reduction in telomere length after each cell division. Without telomerase, the mice aged much faster than normal. Their sense of smell, brain size, and reproductive capacity were significantly reduced. Their intestines and spleen were also damaged. However, when DePinho injected a solution into the mice to activate telomerase, the damaged tissues recovered rapidly, and the aging process reversed.

"The rats' health had deteriorated drastically, but within just a few months their bodies had recovered remarkably. We even saw new nerve cells appearing in their brains," DePinho stated.

Initially, the research team only hoped their therapy would slow down the aging process, but the results showed that aging was reversed. According to the research team, their achievement brings scientists closer to the goal of reversing or slowing down the aging process in the human body. An effective anti-aging solution would significantly improve people's health, enhance the quality of life for the elderly, and reduce the cost of treating a range of age-related diseases – such as dementia, stroke, and cardiovascular disease.

According to VnExpress - VT