Sometimes a drug intended for one purpose turns out to have other uses. Metformin, a treatment for type 2 diabetes, may prove effective in treating cancer.
Researchers are a step closer to figuring out how metformin may help prevent cancer.
Metformin is generally used to treat type 2 diabetes. The drug helps the body use insulin more effectively.
Senescent cell removal holds great potential but are all research approaches equal?
Some scientific commentary on senescent cell clearing (Senolytics) and the different approaches the research community is engaged in.
“Researchers are taking two broad approaches to cellular senescence at the present time. The first is to build therapies that can selectively destroy senescent cells, following the SENS rejuvenation model of periodic removal of damage. If the number of senescent cells is managed so as to keep that count low, then they will not cause further harm. This has the advantage of being straightforward and requiring little further research to put into practice. A range of demonstrated treatments and potential treatments already exist — gene therapies, immunotherapies, senolytic drugs, and so forth — and companies such as Oisin Biotechnologies and UNITY Biotechnology are bringing some of these technologies to the clinic.”
Synthetic biology meets senolytics at Lifespan.io
We are developing tools to help researchers accurately target and remove dysfunctional cells in the body that have entered a state called “senescence”, and thereby assist in restoring it to youthful functionality. Please subscribe, share, and fund our campaign today! ►Campaign Link: https://www.lifespan.io/campaigns/cellage-targeting-senescent-cells-with-synthetic-biology/ ►Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/user/LifespanIO?sub_confirmation=1
Our society has never aged more rapidly – one of the most visible symptoms of the changing demographics is the exponential increase in the incidence of age-related diseases, including cancer, cardiovascular diseases and osteoarthritis. Not only does aging have a negative effect on the quality of life among the elderly but it also causes a significant financial strain on both private and public sectors. As the proportion of older people is increasing so is health care spending. According to a WHO analysis, the annual number of new cancer cases is projected to rise to 17 million by 2020, and reach 27 million by 2030. Similar trends are clearly visible in other age-related diseases such as cardiovascular disease. Few effective treatments addressing these challenges are currently available and most of them focus on a single disease rather than adopting a more holistic approach to aging.
Recently a new approach which has the potential of significantly alleviating these problems has been validated by a number of in vivo and in vitro studies. It has been demonstrated that senescent cells (cells which have ceased to replicate due to stress or replicative capacity exhaustion) are linked to many age-related diseases. Furthermore, removing senescent cells from mice has been recently shown to drastically increase mouse healthspan (a period of life free of serious diseases).
Here at CellAge we are working hard to help translate these findings into humans!
CellAge, together with a leading synthetic biology partner, Synpromics, is going to develop synthetic promoters which are specific to senescent cells (SeneSENSE), as promoters that are currently being used to track senescent cells are simply not good enough to be used in therapies. The most prominently used p16 gene promoter has a number of limitations, for example. As our primary mission is to expand the interface between synthetic biology and aging research as well as drive translational research forward, we will offer senescence reporter assay to academics for free. We predict that in the very near future this assay will be also used as a quality control step in the cell therapy manufacturing process to make cell therapies safer!
As our secondary goal, we will focus on validating gene therapies for senescent cell eradication (SeneHEALTH) – initially for patients with progeroid syndromes, then for patients who underwent radiotherapy (during which the number of senescent cells are increased) or developed age-related disease and eventually for healthy individuals.
Dr. Aubrey de Grey from the SENS Research Foundation was kind enough to talk in support of CellAge and their campaign on Lifespan.io
We are developing tools to help researchers accurately target and remove dysfunctional cells in the body that have entered a state called “senescence”, and thereby assist in restoring it to youthful functionality. Please subscribe, share, and fund our campaign today! ►Campaign Link: https://www.lifespan.io/campaigns/cellage-targeting-senescent-cells-with-synthetic-biology/ ►Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/user/LifespanIO?sub_confirmation=1
Our society has never aged more rapidly – one of the most visible symptoms of the changing demographics is the exponential increase in the incidence of age-related diseases, including cancer, cardiovascular diseases and osteoarthritis. Not only does aging have a negative effect on the quality of life among the elderly but it also causes a significant financial strain on both private and public sectors. As the proportion of older people is increasing so is health care spending. According to a WHO analysis, the annual number of new cancer cases is projected to rise to 17 million by 2020, and reach 27 million by 2030. Similar trends are clearly visible in other age-related diseases such as cardiovascular disease. Few effective treatments addressing these challenges are currently available and most of them focus on a single disease rather than adopting a more holistic approach to aging.
Recently a new approach which has the potential of significantly alleviating these problems has been validated by a number of in vivo and in vitro studies. It has been demonstrated that senescent cells (cells which have ceased to replicate due to stress or replicative capacity exhaustion) are linked to many age-related diseases. Furthermore, removing senescent cells from mice has been recently shown to drastically increase mouse healthspan (a period of life free of serious diseases).
Here at CellAge we are working hard to help translate these findings into humans!
CellAge, together with a leading synthetic biology partner, Synpromics, is going to develop synthetic promoters which are specific to senescent cells (SeneSENSE), as promoters that are currently being used to track senescent cells are simply not good enough to be used in therapies. The most prominently used p16 gene promoter has a number of limitations, for example. As our primary mission is to expand the interface between synthetic biology and aging research as well as drive translational research forward, we will offer senescence reporter assay to academics for free. We predict that in the very near future this assay will be also used as a quality control step in the cell therapy manufacturing process to make cell therapies safer!
As our secondary goal, we will focus on validating gene therapies for senescent cell eradication (SeneHEALTH) – initially for patients with progeroid syndromes, then for patients who underwent radiotherapy (during which the number of senescent cells are increased) or developed age-related disease and eventually for healthy individuals.
Posted in biotech/medical, life extension | Leave a Comment on Senescent cells accumulate with age and gradually poison their neighboring cells and secrete signals that shut down your stem cells and reduce your ability to regenerate tissue
Cellular senescence is a complicated process but here it is explained in a simple infographic. The removal of senescent cells (senolytics) is a very hot topic right now and it represents the arrival of the first of the SENS therapies.
CellAge is one of the companies engaged in senolytic research and they are running a campaign on Lifespan.io if you would like to learn more about them.
https://www.lifespan.io/campaigns/cellage-targeting-senescent-cells-with-synthetic-biology/
Lifespan.io / Life Extension Advocacy Foundation
Lilly announced today that CYRAMZA® (ramucirumab) has been approved by the Singapore Health Sciences Authority to treat people with advanced gastric cancer, whose cancer has progressed after prior chemotherapy. First country in ASEAN to approve the new biologic therapy that extends survival in patients with advanced stomach cancer after prior chemotherapy
CYRAMZA® (ramucirumab) is now available to Singaporeans living with advanced gastric cancer. The drug gained approval by Singapore’s Health Science’s Authority (HSA) earlier this year, marking the first regulatory approval in ASEAN. CYRAMZA is already available to patients in Japan, Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong.
Now that’s an idea; education for systems. I can see the online university advertisements now showing an autonomous car beeping and flashing its lights over the enjoyment of graduating.
What if I told you to tie your shoes, but you had no laces? Or to cook dinner, but you had no pots or pans.
There are certain tools we need to succeed, which we often don’t have access to or are held back by a gatekeeper.
Dozens of AI / Machine Learning startups experience this same problem because they don’t have enough data to properly train their AI algorithm. Startups that aim to eliminate the error involved in judging cancerous tumors. Startups that aim to improve personalized medicine and create a healthier future.
Nice write on polymeric coatings as a material option consider when developing implants replicating a natural electrode charge without creating damage or disruptions. Author proposes such materials could be leveraged beyond their use today and expanded to include BMI implants. Definitely, will take a closer look at.
Jeff Hendricks Biotectix outlines how polymeric coatings can help improve the performance of medical and consumer electronic devices.
Excellent. Now, the question is “has Microsoft seen this?” as they are working on solving Diabetes too as part of their Synbio program that has already shown us their DNA Data Storage.
People with type 1 diabetes must inject themselves with insulin multiple times per day. This is because their immune system has destroyed cells in the pancreas that secrete insulin to maintain a healthy blood glucose level.
A team of bioengineers now report a possible alternative to such injections. The researchers engineered human kidney cells to act like pancreatic β cells, namely to sense blood glucose levels and produce insulin accordingly (Science 2016, DOI: 10.1126/science.aaf4006). When implanted in mice with type 1 diabetes, the cells prevent high blood glucose levels, also known as hyperglycemia.
Right now, “all we offer diabetic patients to cope with their disease is to have them measure their blood glucose levels and then inject a hormone,” says Martin Fussenegger of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich, who led the team that engineered the cells. Although this works, he says, getting the dose right can be tough. “We set out to pioneer a new disease treatment concept.”
