Scientists successfully reverse aging in mice
We know that aging is an inevitable process that we all go through. But what does it mean to grow old? According to Dr. David Sinclair, professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School, it is the lack of oxygen that tells our cells when it is time to leave.
Without oxygen, mitochondria - which are a kind of engine of cells - become less efficient at transforming fuel like glucose into energy for everything to work properly. At some point they stop completely.
However, Sinclair and his team first found a way to reverse - or at least delay - this process. According to a study published in the journal Cell, a compound naturally found in young cells is able to "rejuvenate" old cells.
The scientific method
To reach these conclusions, the researchers worked with mice and found that administering a substance called nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD) for a week in older mice was enough to make two-year-old animals have tissue compatible with animals of six months. If we make a parallel with humans, it would be the same as making a 60-year-old's cells only 20 years old again.
The study's scientist explains that as mammals get older, NAD levels drop by 50%. With the substance missing, communication between the cell and the mitochondria is also impaired. In this way, cells become more vulnerable to aging and symptoms such as inflammation, muscle wasting and decreased metabolism may appear.
However, by reintroducing the right amounts of NAD into cells, aging can be reversed. "When we give the molecule, the cells think that oxygen levels are normal and everything reverses, " explains the researcher.
Immortality?
While NAD may be the key to eternal youth, Sinclair also investigates the effects of resveratrol - a compound easily found in red wine. But the scientist points out that none of this means the immortality of cells. “I wouldn't go that far. What makes the reversal of aging interesting is the fact that it gives us more of the time we're looking for, ”he says.
The next step of the research is to add NAD to the rat water and analyze if it makes them take longer to present the traditional diseases associated with aging. This analysis may have important results for those who study different cancers, as tumors tend to form in low oxygen conditions and are more common in older people.
The good news is that, as a naturally occurring substance in cells that only diminishes over time, NAD has no significant side effects, which makes researchers optimistic about administering the compound to people.
“If a body is slowly weakening and losing its ability to effectively self-regulate, we can put it back on track as if it were 20 or 30 years old, ” concludes Sinclair.
