A mix of three known medicines not only slows down, but reverses the aging process. It is the conclusion of one study just published in Nature e Biomed.
Nine people benefited for a year from a growth hormone-based treatment to reverse aging and two diabetes drugs in a University of California test.
At the end of the treatment cycle, according to the studies, the patients "recovered" a biological age younger than 2.5 years.
Here too I intrude to throw water on the fire: the results are there and are confirmed, but the group of tests is made up of Caucasians only and a second comparison test is missing to better contextualize the results of the research.
For many, the theme ofimmortality it is the holy grail of both futurism and medicine.
Even those who do not have the slightest intention of living forever, the idea of being able to live without the ravages of time still sounds much better than living longer but among the thousand ailments of old age.
In terms of length and quality of life more than age on the documents it is important the ability of our body to keep fit at the cellular and molecular level.
How is the shape measured?
Scientists measure biological aging by considering something called an "epigenetic clock". One of the main methods of measurement was developed by a co-author of the study, Dr. Steve horvath of the University of California.
This method looks in depth at the changes expressed by the DNA. As we age, a whole series of chemical markers called 'methyls' bind to DNA molecules.
These changes do not alter the DNA sequence, but can damage the way a section of the genetic code can be turned on or off, or interfere with other biological processes.
Multiple factors influence this degradation (called methylation and concerning many organs and tissues, including the vital gland called Thyme) and the more the body goes towards decay.
Thyme
In particular, the Thymus gland works a bit like a "master" for white blood cells, which contribute a lot to the immune system. White blood cells come to life from the bone marrow, but it is through the thymus that white blood cells enter their final form, becoming T lymphocytes capable of keeping cancer and other infections at bay.
Thyme begins to degrade with age, along with the collapse of growth hormone levels. Previous research in animals suggests that the administration of growth hormones protects and restores all or part of the activity of the thymus.
For this Dr Gregory Fahy, collaborator of Dr Horvath, immunologist and co-founder of Intervene Immune, recruited 9 Caucasian males aged between 51 and 65 years. He did it to take the hormone Dehydroepiandrosterone, for friends DHEA.
Dr Fahy has already experimented on himself the activities of DHEA to rejuvenate his Timo in the 90s. It is confronted with side effects such as the high risk of diabetes. For this he proceeded "correcting" the treatment with two antidiabetic drugs and periodically checking the health of his Thyme.
I was expecting a slowing of the epigenetic clock, not a reversal.
Dr Steve Horvath, in an interview in 2014 on Nature
At the end of the test, 7 of the 9 participants saw the total disappearance of fats around the gland, replaced by healthy tissues. Analysis of the epigenetic clock yielded even more amazing results: all patients had far fewer markers than they had at the beginning.
Biologically speaking, they were 2 and a half years younger.
