A Gene Therapy Platform Applied to Skin Rejuvenation

MRBL is one of the many projects relevant to the treatment of aging that is in George Church's orbit. This is a collection of gene therapy technologies intended for delivery of vectors to areas of skin directly, coupled with analysis of age-related and disease-related gene expression changes in skin cell populations to provide targets. It is a viewed as a basis for approaches in cell reprogramming that could make aged skin cells behave in a more youthful fashion, overriding their response to the age-damaged local environment. In terms of mechanisms known to be of interest in aging, upregulation of collagen production is an obvious goal, generally agreed upon to be beneficial if achieved. A more interesting but more challenging result to aim for would be the deposition of elastin in a structurally correct manner. Beyond these two, there are many other more subtle issues in cell misbehavior related to the aging of skin, from stem cell activity to coordination of wound healing in the dermis and epidermis. That said, it isn't clear that forcing more a youthful behavior in cells via gene therapies is the best way forward in all matters relating to aging. It neglects root causes in favor of trying to override them selectively, allowing those root causes to continue to produce all of their other consequences. Chronic inflammation, for example, has a broadly negative impact on tissue function in skin, as is also the case in other organs. Clearing senescent cells, and re...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs