Gene therapy of aging: experience for yourself

Alexander Ershov, N+1 

Elizabeth Perish, the head of the startup BioViva, became the first person in the world to receive genetic therapy for aging. This is stated in a message on behalf of the company, which was signed by Perish herself (BioViva Treats First Patient with Gene Therapy to Reverse Aging). 

She reports some details on the Reddit forum, experts familiar with the company's activities were interviewed by MIT Technology Review journalists (A Tale of Do-It-Yourself Gene Therapy).

The procedure consisted of intravenous injection of genetic constructs. Moreover, since genetic therapy of aging is not only not allowed by the American FDA, but was not even considered in this way, the procedure was carried out outside the United States. According to some of BioViva's contractors, most likely we are talking about Colombia, but neither the name of the clinic nor the name of the doctor who performed the procedure is known.

The company's press release refers to two types of "therapy". According to Perish, we are talking about the activation of telomerase using viral vectors and the introduction of structures that stimulate the synthesis of follistatin.

The first type of intervention has so far been used only on mice. In a 2012 paper (Bruno Bernardes de Jesus et al. Telomerase gene therapy in adult and old mice delays aging and increases longevity without increasing cancer // EMBO Mol Med., 2012) it has been shown that the introduction of telomerase genes in an adenovirus-based vector can extend the average life time of animals by 13-24 percent, depending on the age of rodents.

Telomerase is an enzyme that completes DNA at the ends of chromosomes (telomeres). Aging is accompanied by telomere degradation, which telomerase is able to reverse. 

But since the causal relationship between telomere degradation and aging remains a complex issue, and telomerase activation can cause cancer, telomerase therapy has so far only been the object of research, but has never been used on humans or primates.

As for the introduction of genetic constructs with follistatin, it has already been successfully tested on patients with muscular dystrophy (Mendell et al., A Phase 1/2a Follistatin Gene Therapy Trial for Becker Muscular Dystrophy // Molecular Therapy, 2015), but not on healthy people. Follistatin stimulates muscle growth because it is an antagonist of myostatin, a protein that suppresses this process.

Experts interviewed by MIT Technology Review, including the well-known biologist George Church, are inclined to believe that Perish's statements are most likely true. It is not difficult to carry out such a procedure on the basis of developments already published in academic journals – unlike the organization of expensive and long-term clinical trials. Church admits that telomerase therapy can be very promising, but emphasizes that it should be carried out within the framework of reproducible studies. 

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16.10.2015