Younger, prettier, stronger. The pursuit of youth will never stop as long as we live in this society, and neither will the research to discover the next revolutionary anti-aging treatment.
Until now, hematological research – mainly in experimental animals – focused on transfusion of elderly patients with the blood of healthy and young adults. Although these are promising studies, it seems that the clock of time can be turned back without the need for other people’s blood – just our own. This is supported in research published in Nature Cell Biology (https://www.nature.com/ncb/).
Researchers from Columbia University in New York argue that an anti-inflammatory drug can rejuvenate the hematopoietic system, possibly leading to, if not more years of life, certainly a healthier life expectancy.
Imagine a 70-year-old with the blood of a 40-year-old in his veins. This is how Dr. Emmanuelle Passegué, director of the Columbia Stem Cell Initiative, tries to explain how the aging hematopoietic system has unpleasant effects on the body, while its renewal could save us from many health problems.
The medicine that regenerated the blood
Dr. Passegué and graduate student Carl Mitchell discovered that the anti-inflammatory drug anakinra, approved for use in rheumatoid arthritis, reverses some of the effects of aging on the hematopoietic system.
Anakinra neutralizes the biological activity of interleukin-1a and interleukin-1b by competitively inhibiting their binding to the interleukin-1 type I receptor (IL-1RI).
According to the European Medicines Agency anakinra is used to treat the signs and symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis (a disease of the immune system that causes inflammation of the joints) in adults.
Anakinra is an immunosuppressive agent (a medicine that reduces the activity of the immune system). It is a copy of a human protein called “human interleukin-1 receptor antagonist,” which blocks receptors for the chemical transporter interleukin-1 in the body. This transporter is produced in large amounts in patients with rheumatoid arthritis, causing inflammation and joint damage, and is also involved in causing inflammation associated with CAPS, familial Mediterranean fever, and Still’s disease. Anakinra attaches to the receptors that interleukin-1 would normally attach to and thereby inhibits the activity of interleukin-1 and helps relieve the symptoms of the diseases.
Researchers came up with this drug by studying the body’s primordial hematopoietic cells and how they age.
Many different types of cells make up the complex hematopoietic system, with a common characteristic being the common origin from a small population of primordial hematopoietic cells, which “nest” in the bone marrow, according to the National Transplantation Organization’s website. Primordial hematopoietic cells circulate in the peripheral blood, while they are also found in the umbilical cord blood, which is collected after delivery. A small number of these cells have the ability to regenerate the hematopoietic system.
Anti-aging treatment for the 50s
The research team discovered a number of antiaging benefits in the circulatory system and bone marrow by neutralizing the activity of interleukin-1β, through anakinra. The team is now studying whether this treatment could also benefit humans, thereby replacing the need for transfusions with ‘young’ blood.
“Treating elderly patients with anti-inflammatory drugs that block the action of IL-1B should help maintain a healthier hematopoietic system,” explains Dr. Passegué, who hopes this study will soon lead to clinical trials.
She expects that with a deeper understanding at the molecular level of the hematopoietic process, it will be possible to design pharmaceutical approaches that will delay aging.
