An Outline of Present Work on Partial Reprogramming as a Rejuvenation Therapy

Here I'll point out a good, lengthy introduction to the ongoing, suddenly very well funded work on partial reprogramming as the basis for rejuvenation therapies. Reprogramming somatic cells to induced pluripotent stem cells requires exposure to the Yamanaka factors, but is a lengthy process with low efficiency. Early in that process, epigenetic patterns in a cell are restored to a more youthful configuration without the loss of differentiated somatic cell state, and this is the goal that partial reprogramming aims to achieve: restore mitochondrial function and many other cell activities in old tissues without changing cell state. Animal data is promising, even given the issues such as DNA damage that cannot be addressed by partial reprogramming, but the challenge will be how to reach this goal in a way that does not produce a significant risk of cancer via the inadvertent creation of pluripotent cells, while still rejuvenating enough of the cells in a tissue to matter. As a whole, partial reprogramming seems quite promising: it not only improves biomarkers across tissues, but also improves aging-related functions. Even though systemic in vivo experiments of wildtype mice only showed modest outcomes so far, it might be because the protocol has not been optimized. Low hanging fruit optimizations include starting the protocol at an earlier age as well as having a longer induction period. In addition, in vivo targeted treatment in wildtype mice demonstrated impressive re...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs