Reversing Age: Dual species measurement of epigenetic ages with a single clock
It is well known that young blood plasma has beneficial effects on mice’s organs. It was unknown whether young blood plasma rejuvenated cells and tissues on an epigenetic basis; whether it altered the epigenetic timer, which is highly accurate molecular biomarker for aging. In order to answer this question, six epigenetic clocks were developed for rat tissue based on DNA-methylation values from n=593 samples. The rat pan-tissue timer can be used to analyze DNA methylation profiles of all rat tissue, while the rat liver-, brain- and blood-clocks are specific to their tissue types. By adding n=850 samples of human tissue to the training data, we developed two epigenetic timers that can be applied to both rat and human tissues. These six clocks were used to examine the rejuvenation effect of plasma fraction treatments in various rat tissues. The treatment reduced the epigenetic age of liver, blood, and heart tissue by more than half. In the hypothalamus, a less pronounced but statistically significant rejuvenation was observed. The treatment was accompanied by progressive improvement in the function of these organs as ascertained through numerous biochemical/physiological biomarkers and behavioral responses to assess cognitive functions. The cellular senescence that is not related to epigenetic ageing was also reduced significantly in vital organs. This study shows that plasma-derived treatments reverse aging in a significant way, according to epigenetic clocks as well as benchmark biomarkers.
Some authors are the founders, owners or employees of Nugenics Research, which is planning to commercialize \”Elixir\”. (Steve Horvath, Agnivesh Srivastava). Nugenics Research provided financial support to other authors (Kavita Sing, Shraddha Khairnar). Other authors have no conflict of interest.
Source:
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.05.07.082917v1
