A new gene therapy has been developed by scientists in Beijing that can reverse some of the effects of ageing in mice and prolong their lifespans, results that could one day lead to similar treatment for humans.
“These mice show after 6-8 months overall improved appearance and grip strength and most significantly they need extended lifespan for about 25%,” Qu said.
The team of biologists from different CAS departments used the CRISPR/Cas9 method to screen thousands of genes for those which were particularly strong drivers of cellular senescence, the term wont to describe cellular ageing.
The CRISPR/Cas9 approach was used by the team of biologists from various CAS departments to test thousands of genes for those that were particularly strong drivers of cellular senescence, the term used to characterise cellular ageing.
They identified 100 genes out of around 10,000, and kat7 was the foremost efficient at contributing to senescence in cells, Qu said.
Kat7 is one among tens of thousands of genes found within the cells of mammals. The researchers inactivated it within the livers of the mice employing a method called a lentiviral vector.
“We just tested the function of the gene in several sorts of cell types, within the human somatic cell , the mesenchymal progenitor cells, within the human liver cell and therefore the mouse liver cell and for all of those cells we didn’t see any detectable cellular toxicity. And for the mice, we also didn’t see any side effect yet.”
Despite this, the tactic may be a great distance from being ready for human trials, Qu said.
“It’s still definitely necessary to check the function of kat7 in other cell sorts of humans and other organs of mice and within the other pre-clinical animals before we use the strategy for human ageing or other health conditions,” she said.
Qu said she hopes to be ready to test the tactic on primates next, but it might require tons of funding and far more research first.
