Fri, Feb 9th 2024
Swiss researchers achieve a milestone in anti-ageing research by successfully slowing down the ageing process in mice, opening new avenues for human health advancements.
Swiss scientists have made a pivotal discovery in the fight against aging. They’ve identified a method to diminish age-related inflammation, utilizing medication to effectively decelerate the aging process in mice.
The treated mice demonstrated enhanced cognitive, visual, and motor abilities post-treatment, attributed to the medication bolstering the body’s waste elimination system, as the University of Freiburg announced.
Humans have 15 trillion cells, each generating waste that must be recycled. Over time, cells diminish their waste management efficiency, leading to widespread chronic inflammation.
This is especially evident in brain cells, or neurons, where accumulating waste can lead to cell demise. These findings were shared in “Nature Communications.”
The term for the body’s clean-up process is autophagy. The team, led by Patricia Boya from the University of Fribourg, discovered that a specific autophagy type, mitophagy, persists despite aging. Mitophagy is tasked with cleaning mitochondria, the cell’s energy generators.
The aging mice were administered “Urolithin A,” a drug known to activate mitophagy. This led to reduced inflammation and notable brain health improvements in the mice, as demonstrated by the study.
Cell cultures from older human donors mirrored these outcomes. However, extensive research is required to ascertain its applicability to human health.
The study suggests that enhancing mitophagy to mitigate age-related inflammation and diseases indirectly represents a promising therapeutic strategy worth further exploration.
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