Fight Aging!

The thymus plays host to thymocyte cells originally generated in the bone marrow, guiding their maturation into T cells of the adaptive immune system. The aged thymus steadily loses active tissue, however, and the supply of new T cells dwindles as a result. Most people in their 50s have very little thymic function, and without a supply of reinforcements the adaptive immune system becomes ever more dysfunctional over time. Back in the 2010s there was considerable academic interest in approaches to the regeneration of the thymus based on upregulation of FOXN1 expression, but that proved challenging enough for those efforts to die out (aside from one persistent academic group that may have recently found a solution). Absence of a suitable delivery system for FOXN1 gene therapy targeted to the thymus was one major issue. That FOXN1, like many transcription factors, downregulates its own expression was another. Now, however, there are a fair number of companies in the growing longevity industry working on various possible approaches to the problem.

Tolerance Bio is developing an allogeneic cell therapy platform based on induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) as well as pharmacological treatments aimed at immune diseases. Thymic dysfunction is linked to various immune diseases due to age-related decline, congenital defects, or damage from medical interventions like surgery, chemotherapy, and infection. Tolerance Bio aims to reverse these effects by developing artificial thymuses from stem cells, targeting disease-specific treatments such as thymic organoids. The company also seeks to delay thymic involution with drugs to prevent both natural and accelerated thymic decline. Restoring thymic function could not only combat immune diseases but also extend healthy lifespan by improving the body's immune response.

Tolerance Bio joins a number of companies seeking to harness the power of the thymus against aging and disease, including ARPA-backed Thymmune, Vidaregen and Thymox. In 2015, Dr Greg Fahy, renowned aging researcher and CSO of Intervene Immune, commenced the first clinical trial to explore if thymus regeneration could reverse aspects of human aging, with results showing participants' epigenetic age was "significantly decreased" by the treatment.

Link: https://longevity.technology/news/tolerance-bio-launches-to-boost-human-healthspan-via-the-thymus/