Revel Pharmaceuticals Finally Seed Funded to Develop Glucosepane Cross-Link Breakers

I'm pleased to see that the Revel Pharmaceuticals founders have finally sorted out a seed round to fund their work; the establishment of this startup has been in progress for a few years now, and some of us were beginning to think it a lost cause. Revel Pharmaceuticals is the biotech startup established to develop glucosepane cross-link breaker drugs based on work carried out by the Spiegel Lab at Yale. That team, supported by the SENS Research Foundation, first developed a means to synthesize glucospane, and then found bacterial enzymes that can break down glucosepane cross-links. Glucosepane is the most prevalent form of cross-link observed in aged human tissues, hardy compounds that build up slowly over time as a side-effect of the normal operation of cellular metabolism, and are somewhere between challenging and impossible for even a youthful biochemistry to break down. We humans are just not equipped with the biochemical tools for the job. Cross-linking occurs when structural molecules of the extracellular matrix are linked to one another via bonds with a glucosepane compound, or other only short-lived and thus less harmful molecules, restricting their movement. This is a form of molecular damage that causes loss of elasticity in skin and blood vessel walls, among many other negative effects. The latter is quite serious, the starting point for hypertension, cardiovascular disease, and many other ultimately fatal issues. The enzymes discovered at the Spiegel...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Investment Source Type: blogs