Another senolytic
Japanese scientists have successfully tested the first anti-aging vaccine
Svetlana Maslova, Hi-tech+
The vaccine removes dysfunctional aging cells that can lead to diseases. In a young body, this happens naturally, but the immune system of older people in this regard needs support to prevent cancer, neurodegeneration and other diseases. All three groups of mice on which the vaccine was first tested showed that it works.
When a cell accumulates too much damage, it stops dividing, and the immune system removes them from the body. Meanwhile, immune cells also age, so especially with age, a person's ability to destroy aging dysfunctional cells decreases. As a result, accumulating in the body, they lead to diseases.
To solve this problem , scientists from Juntendo University studied the gene expression of aging cells and identified the GPNMB protein, according to a press release Stop the Clock: New Therapeutic Strategy Targets “Old" Cells to Prevent Aging. Later it turned out that in humans it was present in high concentrations in atherosclerosis.
Experiments on mouse models showed that without GPNMB, even against the background of a fatty diet that accelerates aging, animals less often developed metabolic disorders and had fewer molecular signs of aging. In the example of atherosclerosis, mice without GPNMB had less pronounced symptoms of the disease.
Meanwhile, it was necessary for humans to develop a simpler rejuvenation strategy without the use of genetic editing. For this reason, the new experimental vaccine is based on peptides that can target GPNMB and stimulate the immune system to destroy the cells that express it.
The vaccine was tested on three groups of mice: with a fatty diet, accelerated aging disease (progeria) and healthy middle-aged individuals. Improvements were observed in all three groups.
Compared with the control groups, the first had good metabolic function, the second had increased life expectancy, and the third had a healthier old age.
"Our work points to new strategies to combat aging. There are probably many more senoantigens that are produced by other types of aging cells (and the GPNMB protein is not the only target), so there is still a lot of work ahead," said study author Toru Minamino. In the future, scientists plan to develop individual anti-aging prevention strategies for humans, depending on the prevalence of certain types of aging cells.
Earlier, scientists from Stanford showed that targeting one protein allows old mice to restore strength and endurance to the level of young ones in a month.
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