Fight Aging!

A number of groups are working on gene therapies for aging and age-related disease based on manipulation of telomere length. Here is some insight into what that work looks like: "Degeneration of the intervertebral disc is an age-related condition in which cells responsible for the maintenance and health of the disc deteriorate with age. Telomerase can extend the cellular lifespan and function of other musculoskeletal tissues, such as the heart, bones, and connective tissues. Therefore, extension of the cellular lifespan and matrix production of intervertebral disc cells may have the potential to delay the degeneration process. ... nucleus pulposus cells were lipofectamine transfected in vitro with a human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT) expression construct ... hTERT transfection enabled a 50% extension in mean cellular lifespan and prolonged matrix production of collagen 1 and 2 for more than 282 days. ... Telomerase can extend the cellular lifespan of nucleus pulposus cells and prolong the production of extracellular matrix. Safety is still unresolved, as karyotypic instability was detected but no loss of contact inhibition, mitogen dependency, or G1-cell cycle checkpoint control was evident." That last meaning it is unclear as to whether the risk of cancer is increased by this process.

Link: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17495775