“FIRST GENE THERAPY SUCCESSFUL AGAINST HUMAN AGING
American woman gets biologically younger after gene therapies
Elizabeth Parrish, CEO of Bioviva USA Inc. has become the first human being to be successfully rejuvenated by gene therapy, after her own company’s experimental therapies reversed 20 years of normal telomere shortening.
Telomere score is calculated according to telomere length of white blood cells (T-lymphocytes). This result is based on the average T-lymphocyte telomere length compared to the American population at the same age range. The higher the telomere score, the “younger” the cells.
In September 2015, then 44 year-old CEO of BioViva USA Inc. Elizabeth Parrish received two of her own company’s experimental gene therapies: one to protect against loss of muscle mass with age, another to battle stem cell depletion responsible for diverse age-related diseases and infirmities.
The treatment was originally intended to demonstrate the safety of the latest generation of the therapies. But if early data is accurate, it is already the world’s first successful example of telomere lengthening via gene therapy in a human individual. Gene therapy has been used to lengthen telomeres before in cultured cells and in mice, but never in a human patient.
Telomeres are short segments of DNA which cap the ends of every chromosome, acting as ‘buffers’ against wear and tear. They shorten with every cell division, eventually getting too short to protect the chromosome, causing the cell to malfunction and the body to age.
In September 2015, telomere data taken from Parrish’s white blood cells by SpectraCell‘s specialised clinical testing laboratory in Houston, Texas, immediately before therapies were administered, revealed that Parrish’s telomeres were unusually short for her age, leaving her vulnerable to age-associated diseases earlier in life.”
To read the rest check out the original post here: http://bioviva-science.com/2016/04/21/first-gene-therapy-successful-against-human-aging/
February 10, 2019 at 7:13 pm
Stop aging is great, but could the gene therapy treat severe illness. Genetic disorders like Tay–Sachs disease, Phenylketonuria, Mucopolysaccharidoses, Lysosomal acid lipase deficiency, Glycogen storage diseases and Galactosemia are still widespread.
April 25, 2019 at 3:51 am
Genetic Engineering is a set of technologies used to change the genetic makeup of cells, including the transfer of genes within and across species boundaries to produce improved or novel organisms. It will help to cure many genetic issues in future. It has high scope to build career in it. Thanks for informative article, keep sharing.