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Credit: https://frontlinegenomics.com/gene-therapy-the-what-the-how-and-the-ethics/

BioViva’s Elizabeth Parrish explains gene therapy based anti-aging treatments

August 24, 2021

Aging is one of the most pressing problems of our age; it leads to a gradual decrease in physical and mental capacity, a growing risk of chronic disease, and ultimately death.
Thanks to scientific breakthroughs made over the last few decades, researchers are now closer to developing antiaging therapies that may help humanity live much longer and healthier.
During an interview with Richard Jacobs on the Finding Genius Podcast, Elizabeth Parrish elaborated on some of the most promising advances in gene therapy.

Scientists are exploring interventions to address the biggest unmet need today – biological aging and chronic disease. Elizabeth Parrish is the CEO of BioViva Sciences, a Seattle-based biotech that is working to develop treatments to slow down the aging process. During an interview in the Finding Genius Podcast, Parrish explained some of the gene therapy treatments that her company is exploring. Gene therapy works by replacing or inactivating disease-causing genes. New genes may also be introduced in an attempt to cure disease, improve the body’s ability to fight diseases, and even reverse aging. Researchers test human cells or mice in a lab. Once a potential gene candidate is identified, the next step is to figure out how much of it is needed. Scientists then package the gene into a delivery method called a viral vector (using a modified version of a virus to deliver genes to cells). In 2006, Dr. Shinya Yamanaka and his team at Kyoto University discovered that the age of mature cells could be reverted to nearly zero. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2012 for this work. But rather than turn cells into a zero-age status, researchers at BioViva and other anti-aging startups are looking for genes that are considered therapeutic and that make cells behave more youthfully. One key area that Elizabeth Parrish’s team has worked on is how telomere inducing gene therapy could be used to alleviate telomere shortening and thus improve human healthspan and lifespan. Telomeres (the caps at the end of chromosomes) shorten gradually with each cell division in order to help protect chromosomes from damage. This attrition however results in disease development and has been identified as one of the key hallmarks of biological aging. Already, Scientists have linked the lifespan of over 200 species to how fast their telomeres shorten. For instance, mice telomeres shorten really quick – thus the short lifespan. Red sea urchins’ telomeres – on the other hand – barely shorten. This makes them one of the longest-lived animals on earth, with lifespans that can reach 100 and sometimes even 200 years. BioViva researchers have been experimenting with hTERT, a gene that provides instructions for making one component of the enzyme telomerase. Telomerase maintains the length of telomeres and prevents their shortening. Studies in mice have already shown that using hTERT gene therapy can help reverse aging in a broad range of tissues and cell types. The team is now working to figure out how this treatment may be applied to human things. Important questions such as how to target all cells in the body and how many therapies are required need to be answered before the full potential of this gene therapy can be realized. Another key area that BioViva researchers are experimenting with is myostatin inhibition. Myostatin is a growth factor that normally restrains muscle growth to ensure muscles do not grow too large. Myostatin inhibitors such as Follistatin can limit the activity of myostatin and enhance the muscle mass of aged people. This could be a promising therapy given that frailty is a key characteristic of old age that often results in accidents, injuries, and possibly even death. PGC1-alpha is a gene that stimulates mitochondria (the little organelles in cells that create energy) and helps make them healthier and more robust. Researchers at BioViva are looking at how PGC1-alpha therapy may be used to alleviate mitochondria dysfunction – another key hallmark of biological aging. Additionally, Parrish’s company is testing investigational gene therapies that could help safeguard against cognitive decline, cardiovascular problems, and kidney disease. While it may sound like rocket science to the average person, the process of administering gene therapy is quite simplistic from a patient’s view. Candidates are required to start taking immunosuppressants a few days before the gene therapy. This helps keep the immune system from taking out the gene product. During treatment, gene therapy may be administered via an IV drip. Patients then need to stay on immunosuppressants over the next few weeks to allow the treatment to work. Going by the pace at which gene therapy and other areas of longevity research are growing, the goal of enhanced human healthspan and lifespan may be just around the corner. Doctors may soon be able to detect underlying issues and recommend steps to pre-empt disease. “Today you are diagnosed with downstream effects of aging. You might be diagnosed with high blood pressure, high LDL, you know chronic kidney disease, dementia. Those are all byproducts of things going wrong at the cellular level to being with. My hope is that in the next 15 or 20 years when you go to the doctor, they will be talking to you about telomere length, mitochondrial function, stem cell depletion, cellular junk, things that are actually driving the conditions that we see today,” said Parrish. Outside of scientific research, Parrish’s company is also pursuing products that bring anti-aging technology closer to consumers. Perhaps their most notable among these is a direct-to-consumer epigenetic clock that people could use to figure out how biologically old they are. There’s also an immune aging test, a longevity blood test, and an enzyme-based test that can help individuals make decisions that most benefit their health.

References: https://www.findinggeniuspodcast.com/podcasts/sipping-from-the-fountain-of-youth-anti-aging-treatments-explained-by-biovivas-elizabeth-parrish/

BioViva’s Elizabeth Parrish explains gene therapy based anti-aging treatments

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