Harvard University claims to have found the elixir of youth

Harvard scientists think they’re one step closer to the fountain of youth pills that can reverse aging.

The team discovered six chemical cocktails that reversed the aging process in human and rat skill cells “by several years.”

Dr. David Sinclair, a molecular biologist at Harvard Medical School and co-author of the study, hailed it as a “breakthrough” and a step toward “affordable whole-body rejuvenation.”

Sinclair shared on Twitter that human trials could begin within the next year and drew attention Elon Musk, who tweeted: “Well, what exactly is it?”

However, other scientists, including a Harvard professor, said, “It’s mostly noise and preliminary.”

Harvard Distinguished Service Professor Jeffrey Flair shared his opinion of the discovery on Twitter, noting that there were “many reasons to be concerned about these claims” made public in the study.

Gene therapy is the most promising treatment for de-aging but can cost up to $2 million a dose.

in the new study Posted in Journal of AgingThe researchers examined molecules that, when combined, could reverse cell aging and regenerate human cells.

The team developed high-throughput cell-based assays to distinguish young cells from old, aging cells, which are cells that have stopped reproducing.

High-throughput screening uses automated equipment to rapidly test thousands to millions of samples for biological activity at the model organism, cellular, pathway, or molecular level.

Offer also included Real-time transcription-based senescence and nucleocytoplasmic protein (NCC) fragmentation assay.

NCC is critical for the normal function of eukaryotic cells, including stem, bone and muscle cells.

The process landed on the six chemical cocktails the team said ‘Genome-wide restoration of NCC and transcriptome profiles to young cases and reversal of transcriptional age [biological age] In less than a week’, according to the press release.

The team said they tested the cocktails on mouse and human cells, and the results showed de-aging for all six groups.

‘The effect of this four-day treatment is comparable to the overall change seen after a year of regenerative therapy described in a landmark study from 2019, which also focused on restoring epigenetic information,’ the researchers wrote.

Changes in lifespan were assessed using rodent and human clocks, which use gene expression data to predict biological age.

“This new discovery offers the potential to reverse aging with a single pill, with applications ranging from improving eyesight to effective treatment for many people,” said Sinclair.

However, biologists weren’t sold on Sinclair’s study.

‘The screening method here is innovative and could lead to important discoveries one day, which is why I say the study is preliminary,’ Matt Kaeberlin, a biologist, told DailyMail.com.

The cocktails they describe here may have beneficial healing properties.

But there is no direct data in this paper that provides evidence for this.

They must have validated at least one of these cocktails in an animal and showed improvements in age-related measures of health before making these claims about effects on biological aging.

Dr. Charles Brenner, a metabolism researcher, told DailyMail.com that three compounds stood out to him in the latest study.

CHIR99021 inhibits the formation of glycogen, which is activated during sleep to store energy – which is why we don’t need to eat for hours at night.

Brenner also highlighted tranylcypromine, an antidepressant, and valproic acid that is used to treat bipolar disorder and can harm the liver.

The paper does not highlight these risks.

“These are generally not safe alone or in combination,” Brenner said.

He also tweeted: “Sinclair claims his chemical cocktail (actually the chemical cocktails others have developed) does not alter cell identity but they have not done single cell sequencing to assess cell identity – only mass sequencing, which cannot address that question.”

Brenner told DailyMail.com that the cocktails mentioned in the study were initially reported in 2013, which he said meant the compounds weren’t breakthrough discoveries.

It’s a known property of these compounds to alter gene expression and epigenetic lifespan – valproic acid, etc, targets the epigenetic state – that’s how they work to get these reads on cells Not a groundbreaking study on reversing aging He shared in the tweet.

One Twitter user commented on this notion: “Don’t all scientists stand on the shoulders of those who came before? It seems like a strangely frivolous argument that because the study extends the work of others it is not valid.”

Another user replied: “But not all scientists extend the work of others and also claim credit for others’ discoveries as well as make spurious claims that go far beyond what is warranted by any data.”

Sinclair shared the paper on Twitter and in a press release, hailing it as a “breakthrough discovery”.

“We have previously shown the possibility of reversing age by using gene therapy to turn on embryonic genes,” Sinclair wrote in a tweet.

Now we’re showing that it’s possible with chemical cocktails, which is a step toward affordable, full-body rejuvenation.

The scientists also acknowledge in the paper that they have modified aging in just one cell, said Kaeberlin, who is also a professor of pathology at the University of Washington in Seattle.

“The authors exaggerate the significance of their findings by using phrases like ‘rejuvenation’ and ‘reversing biological aging’ but provide no actual evidence to support these claims,” ​​Kaeberlin said.

Sinclair said he gave himself up a decade after adopting four simple daily habits in middle age.

He’s 53, but claimed in March that DNA tests indicated his body was still 43, which he said he achieved by adopting a healthier lifestyle.

Biological age looks at the health of cells rather than how long a person has been alive.

In 2020, Sinclair published a study detailing how he and his team reset senescent cells in mice to earlier versions of themselves.

“It’s a permanent reset, as far as we can tell, and we think it may be a universal process that can be applied across the body to reset our lifespan,” Sinclair, who has spent the past 20 years studying ways to reverse the ravages of time, said. CNN.

DailyMail.com has contacted Sinclair for comment.

Sinclair’s findings build on the Nobel Prize-winning discovery of a protein cocktail that reprograms adult cells into versatile stem cells.

Kyoto University biologist Shinya Yamanaka won the prize in 2021 for his discovery that mature cells can be reprogrammed to become pluripotent, meaning giving rise to all types of cells that make up the body.

“When scientists tell us they have new evidence to solve the problem of aging, we like to think there’s something drastic that they’ve done,” said Brenner.

‘Chemicals.’ [the Harvard scientists] Used are other people’s chemicals from 10 years ago.

The Harvard team shared their search for molecules that, taken together, can reverse cell aging and regenerate human cells.

Brenner also told DailyMail.com that Sinclair is the magazine’s co-editor — and his name is on the board.

“The claim that we are closer to the age of rejuvenating people on this basis that has not been rigorously reviewed is problematic for the credibility of scientists,” Brenner said, noting that a few days and a weekend is not enough time for a full vacation. review.

Scholars in positions of influence associated with the editorial board should not write press releases.

The paper shows timestamps revealing that it was received on June 30, 2023, accepted on July 4 and published on July 12.

“A review time for a day, especially over a national holiday weekend in the United States, is not realistic,” said Kaeberlin, who confirmed that Sinclair is one of the magazine’s editors-in-chief.