Reversing aging research, making a major breakthrough

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In today's increasingly perfect medical technology, health is no longer the only pursuit of people, and topics such as maintenance and freezing age are more and more talked about by people. Everyone wants to stay young forever, and the biggest enemy of them is "aging". Aging is an inevitable fate from the moment we are born.

Recently, however, researchers from Harvard Medical School have reversed aging in mice using a protein that turns adult cells into stem cells. In the experiment, two mice stood side by side, one with bright eyes and smooth skin, while the other was so old that it looked like it might run out of oil at any moment.

Ideally, human cells can divide 52 times before entering the ageing period, which is called the "Hayflake limit". Every time a cell divides, the non-coding telomeres at both ends of the chromosome will shorten a bit. Once the telomeres are exhausted, the chromosome is often prone to mutation, which in turn leads to cancer, aging, etc. If there is a technology that can make cells that have reached Hayflick's limit, return to the state of stem cells, then it may achieve the effect of returning to youth.

iPS, induced pluripotent stem cells. It has a similar regenerative ability to embryonic stem cells and can regenerate into cells of any organ in the body. With this in mind, the researchers picked factors that could induce cells to turn into iPS, and injected them into aging and vision-losing mice using a harmless virus-delivered factor.

As a result, the cells successfully recreated the mouse's optic nerve, and even grew new axons to connect information to the brain, allowing the mouse to regain sight. To further rejuvenate the mice's entire bodies, the researchers injected them with NMN. NMN is an inherent substance in the human body, and its function is reflected by NAD+.

NAD+ (nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide) plays an important role in human anti-aging. In the test, after the mice were injected with β-nicotinamide mononucleotide, the old test mice with the remaining 2 months of life (equivalent to our 60 years old) survived to 4.6 months (equivalent to our 13.8 years of life), and the life expectancy of the test mice 2.3 times longer.

In a comparison experiment, two mice stood side by side, one with bright eyes and smooth skin, while the other was so old that it looked like it might run out of fuel at any moment. This shows that the reversal of aging has been achieved to a certain extent in mice.

Anti-aging is an enduring topic. With the advancement of technology, the experimental effects of mice may one day be transferred to humans. At that time, rejuvenation may no longer be a dream.