New intranasal and injectable gene therapy for healthy life extension.
Dabbu Kumar JaijyanAnca SelariuRuth Cruz-CosmeMingming TongShaomin YangAlketa StefaDavid KekichJunichi SadoshimaUtz HerbigQiyi TangGeorge M ChurchElizabeth L ParrishHua ZhuPublished in: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (2022)
As the global elderly population grows, it is socioeconomically and medically critical to provide diverse and effective means of mitigating the impact of aging on human health. Previous studies showed that the adeno-associated virus (AAV) vector induced overexpression of certain proteins, which can suppress or reverse the effects of aging in animal models. In our study, we sought to determine whether the high-capacity cytomegalovirus vector (CMV) can be an effective and safe gene delivery method for two such protective factors: telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) and follistatin (FST). We found that the mouse cytomegalovirus (MCMV) carrying exogenous TERT or FST (MCMVTERT or MCMVFST) extended median lifespan by 41.4% and 32.5%, respectively. We report CMV being used successfully as both an intranasal and injectable gene therapy system to extend longevity. Specifically, this treatment significantly improved glucose tolerance, physical performance, as well as preventing body mass loss and alopecia. Further, telomere shortening associated with aging was ameliorated by TERT and mitochondrial structure deterioration was halted in both treatments. Intranasal and injectable preparations performed equally well in safely and efficiently delivering gene therapy to multiple organs, with long-lasting benefits and without carcinogenicity or unwanted side effects. Translating this research to humans could have significant benefits associated with quality of life and an increased health span.
Keyphrases
- gene therapy
- human health
- risk assessment
- hyaluronic acid
- epstein barr virus
- mental health
- tissue engineering
- healthcare
- climate change
- public health
- oxidative stress
- physical activity
- high glucose
- cell proliferation
- diabetic rats
- middle aged
- health information
- case control
- social media
- replacement therapy
- drosophila melanogaster
- diffuse large b cell lymphoma