Do you want to try to get younger for $8,000?

The rejuvenating effect of plasma transfusion will be tested in paid trials

Oleg Lischuk, N+1

The American startup Ambrosia has announced the launch of paid clinical trials of rejuvenation techniques using blood plasma transfusion of young people (Young Donor Plasma Transfusion and Age-Related Biomarkers). The initiative has attracted criticism from experts, writes Science (Young blood antiaging trial raises questions).

Located in Monterey, California, the company invites everyone over the age of 35 to participate in open uncontrolled trials. Within two days, each participant will be injected with about 1.5 liters of plasma taken from donors aged 16 to 25 years. Before the transfusion and a month later, all of them will be tested for more than 100 biomarkers associated with age-related changes. The cost of the experimental procedure will be eight thousand dollars. In total, 600 people are planned to participate in the study by 2018.

The idea of such tests originates in experiments on parabiosis, in which scientists connected the circulatory systems of young and old animals, which improved the physical condition of the latter. Several recent studies conducted by Harvard researcher Amy Wagers and her colleagues have shown that plasma transfusion in young mice restores muscle tissue, stimulates vascular growth and improves brain function in elderly animals.

According to the conclusions of scientists, this is due to the action of growth factor and differentiation 11 (GDF11) and myostatin (GDF8). According to their data, these signaling molecules can restore muscle tissue, and their production decreases with age. However, a number of other works have led to the opposite results. And this is not the only reason for criticism.

So, the executive director of the department of aging research at Novartis, David Glass, indicated that there would be no control group receiving a placebo in the trials, and it was not possible to evaluate the effectiveness of transfusions.

A Stanford researcher who conducted one of the works on plasma transfusion to mice, Tony Wyss-Coray, questioned the ethics of the tests, since they will cost participants a lot of money, and their design is unlikely to provide significant scientific data. "There is no clinical evidence [of the potential effectiveness of the method], and you are actually abusing people's trust and the public hype around our research," he said. Wiss-Corey himself founded the company Alkahest, which began an experiment on plasma transfusion to 18 patients with Alzheimer's disease (The PLasma for Alzheimer's SymptoM Amelioration (PLASMA) Study (PLASMA)), while all costs are borne by herself.

A bioethics expert from the University of Minnesota, Lee Turner, said that Ambrosia's activities most remind him of the work of a growing number of private companies that register clinical trials in order to inject stem cells with unconfirmed safety and efficacy to patients for money.

In response to criticism, the co–founder of Ambrosia and the head of its scientific work, Jesse Karmazin, stated only that the registration tests were reviewed by the ethical council, and that taking money from participants is a normal and common practice. He explained the absence of a control group by saying that people would not pay if they knew about the possibility of getting a placebo.

Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru  23.08.2016