The dispute about young blood continues
Medic: "young" blood reduced the chances of developing cancer and Alzheimer's disease
Transfusion of blood from young people to elderly patients reduced the likelihood of developing cancer and Alzheimer's disease and led to a general rejuvenation of some cells and organs, the journal's website reports New Scientist (Human tests suggest young blood cuts cancer and Alzheimer’s risk).
"I don't want to use the word "panacea", but we have discovered something strange about the blood of teenagers. Something contained in it "unfolds" the aging process and forces the body to go backwards," the online edition quotes the doctor and entrepreneur Jesse Karmazin.
About ten years ago, biologists from the University of California at Berkeley discovered that the "gluing" of the circulatory systems of several young and elderly rats led to the rejuvenation of the latter. Such phenomena have made scientists actively interested in the difference between "young" and "old" blood and whether the former can somehow be used to renew and rejuvenate organs and the circulatory system.
Three years ago, another group of biologists conducted a similar experiment by transfusing "young" blood to mice, which led to the rejuvenation of their brains and reduced the likelihood of developing Alzheimer's disease. This made the researchers think about the promotion of such "therapy" in medical practice.
Last year Karmazin founded the startup Ambrosia and organized large-scale clinical trials to observe the consequences of such blood transfusions, recruiting a group of six hundred volunteers. Each of them agreed to pay eight thousand US dollars for the procedure and take responsibility for its possible results. Such an approach caused indignation among scientists who considered Karmazin "a dubious person profiting from the public's trust."
This attitude to Ambrosia's activities is due to the fact that today there is no consensus among biologists about whether this procedure leads to real rejuvenation or simply slows down aging, so that the brain and other organs of animals after transfusion seem "young" to us.
Moreover, the latest research by two leading experts in this field, Irina Konboy from the University of California at Berkeley and Tony Viss-Corey from Stanford University, led to the opposite results, which only intensified the debate about what the procedure leads to and whether it is useful for the body.
According to Karmazin, who described the results of the first tests, there is a benefit from transfusion: elderly people who underwent similar procedures at Ambrosia were much less likely to develop Alzheimer's disease and cancer than the average in the United States. In addition, the concentration of molecules in their body has noticeably decreased, indicating possible health problems.
For example, the concentration of cholesterol in their blood decreased by 10%, cancer markers – by 20%, and the number of beta-amyloid plaques in the nervous system, indicating the possibility of developing Alzheimer's disease, also fell by 20%. As the entrepreneur notes, the condition of two Ambrosia clients in the early and late stages of the development of this disease has improved somewhat.
In turn, scientists consider it premature to talk about the success of the tests, since Karmazin did not have a control group that allows separating the effects of autosuggestion from real changes in the body's work. The entrepreneur himself, as New Scientist writes, is entirely in favor of conducting research in this format, but notes that it will be extremely difficult to organize them, since not all people will be willing to pay for a placebo.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru
02.06.2017