Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

Recently, a new study in the journal Nature confirmed that an anti-aging protein called Klotho can restore memory in aging rhesus monkeys. This study may be used to reverse the aging of the human brain.

Rejuvenation is an eternal topic for mankind.

From Qin Shihuang 2000 years ago to today's Silicon Valley tycoons, when a person's wealth and power reached its peak, the next stage must be the pursuit of immortality.

What is a sign of aging when Silicon Valley super-rich Bryan Johnson conducted a blood exchange test with his 17-year-old son in order to rejuvenate on May 23? One of them is memory loss.

A new study by Nature Aging has found that injecting anti-aging proteins into aging monkeys can significantly improve their memory.

Https://www.nature.com/ articles / s43587-023-00441 for the first time in history, humans have shown that restoring the level of Klotho (anti-aging protein) can change the cognitive ability of primates.

Based on this, researchers are likely to get new treatments for neurodegenerative diseases, which is an important step towards clinical application.

Memory increases in older rhesus monkeys after injection of Klotho last year, Nature published a study in which injecting cerebrospinal fluid from young mice into the brains of aging mice improved their memory.

However, this "star-absorbing method" has caused a lot of ethical and moral disputes.

In today's study, only an injection of a protein called Klotho can greatly enhance the memory of aging rhesus monkeys.

If this study can be extended to clinical application, human neurodegenerative diseases (Alzheimer's, hypothermia, epilepsy, Parkinson's disease, etc.) may be cured.

Klotho: is it possible to treat human cognitive impairment? As we all know, cognition is an important manifestation of brain function, however, people's cognitive ability is bound to decline as they get old.

With the rapid aging of the world population, cognitive impairment has become a major biomedical challenge requiring effective drug intervention.

At this time, a paper by Nature lit up this hope.

The protagonist is the magical Klotho, and researchers have found a way to increase the content of Klotho in the body, providing a "panacea".

Klotho (KL) is a longevity factor, a protein that exists naturally in our bodies, and it decreases with age.

Previously, the important role of Klotho has been proved. Injections of Klotho can prolong the lifespan of animals and increase synaptic plasticity (the ability to control communication between neurons), according to a study.

Paper address: https://www.jneurosci.org/ content / jneuro / 35/6/2358.full.pdf given that there are many genetic and physiological similarities between primates and humans, this may suggest that we have a way to treat human cognitive impairment. "said Marc Busche, a neurologist at the British dementia Research Institute team at University College London.

Students who are familiar with Greek mythology will know that this is the name of the Greek goddess Clotho, one of the three goddesses of fate, and the weaver of the thread of fate.

The meaning of naming after this name is self-evident.

In order to do the experiment, we still have to bring out the versatile tool man, the white mouse.

The researchers found that in some ways, the amount of KL (Klotho) can be increased, which in turn enhances the cognitive function of mice.

After cleavage from its transmembrane form, KL acts as a hormone cycle, affecting the signal transduction of insulin and fibroblast growth factor.

The increase of KL in mice can increase synaptic plasticity, cognitive ability and neurological recovery to aging, Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease-related toxicity.

Studies have shown that individuals with elevated KL factors show better cognitive abilities in aging and Alzheimer's disease due to Klotho gene mutations or other reasons, as well as weaker neurological indicators and lower risk of dementia.

However, up to now, it is not clear whether KL treatment can enhance the cognitive ability of the elderly.

Next, the researchers changed animals and tried to test whether low doses of KL subcutaneously enhanced cognitive abilities in older rhesus monkeys as in mice.

The rhesus monkey experiment can circumvent some of the limitations of the mouse model, because, after all, monkeys and humans have 93% phylogenetic similarity, similar to or more genetic diversity with humans, and exhibit complex high-order cognitive functions.

Like humans, rhesus monkeys experience age-related cognitive decline and synaptic changes, but there is no significant neuronal loss, damaging brain regions, including the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex.

The main goal of the researchers is to test whether the dose of KL in rhesus monkeys can raise serum levels to the range that exists during human lifespan, comparable to the level of therapeutic effectiveness in mice, and whether it can enhance cognitive ability.

The second goal is to see if there is a higher dose of KL in rhesus monkeys.

First, the researchers generated a rhesus monkey form of KL protein (which is 96% homologous to human KL) and verified its activity through mouse experiments.

Starting with a dose of 10 micrograms, the researchers found that the dose of KL used in mice was also effective in rhesus monkeys.

Monkey memory test in this experiment, rhesus monkeys with an average age of 22 were tested.

The age of 22 is an old age for rhesus monkeys.

The experiment tested the cognitive abilities of the old rhesus monkeys before and after a single injection of Klotho.

The monkeys must remember the location of edible food, and the researchers will hide it and put it in one of several wells.

One of the co-authors, Dena Dubal, a doctor and researcher at the University of California, San Francisco, explains that the test is like parking your car in a parking lot or hearing a string of numbers that ask you to remember a few minutes later.

As you get older, these tasks become more and more difficult.

The results showed that the monkeys performed significantly better in the test after being injected with Klotho.

Before injection, they could identify the correct well in 45% of the time, but after injection, the number increased to 60%.

This improvement lasted at least two weeks.

Similar studies have been done in mice before, but this time, low doses of Klotho worked.

Busche says this adds complexity to the findings, suggesting that there is a pattern of behavior that is more subtle than we previously thought.

Can it be applied to humans? Of course, researchers do not know exactly how Klotho affects people's perception, or why it lasts so long.

You know, Klotho itself cannot cross the barrier from the blood to the brain.

Therefore, the researchers concluded that there must be some kind of intermediate, which is the key mechanism by which Klotho acts on cognition.

But then again, experiments on mice and rhesus monkeys give researchers great hope.

"now we have every reason to enter the human clinical trial phase," Dubal said. "

Current experiments increase the likelihood of the effects of artificial injection of Klotho, which is critical for researchers to better understand the clinical potential of the protein.

In order to rejuvenate, they work out the common hobby of Silicon Valley bosses, which is to pursue "immortality".

Bezos and Xiaoza are both involved in cell research.

Sam Altman, today's Silicon Valley celebrity and founder of OpenAI, wishes for "more than 10 years of healthy and dynamic life".

To that end, he has long been taking a diabetes drug to fight aging. It is said that this method of health care is still very popular in Silicon Valley.

He also believes in the law of immortality by changing blood.

Scientists have long done experiments in which young and old mice were stitched together to share the blood system, rejuvenating some of the older mice. For this reason, Altman also set up a rejuvenation company called Retro Biosciences, and Altman invested all the $180 million raised in the latest round of financing.

Speaking of, in 2016, a famous "rich blood exchange" experiment took place in Silicon Valley.

The American company Ambrosia led the clinical trial, which aims to use the blood of young people to treat aging for volunteers over the age of 35.

Within two days, each volunteer was given 1.5 liters of young people's blood.

Of course, the admission ticket is 8000 dollars.

The 45-year-old tech tycoon Bryan Johnson mentioned at the beginning of the article is also a hard-core "rejuvenation" enthusiast.

In addition to the hard-core operation of the third-generation blood exchange experiment, he spends $2 million a year on physical care, getting up at five o'clock for exercise, a vegan diet to control calories, and omni-directional monitoring of more than 70 organs (all during sleep).

Back in 2013, Google founder Larry Page invested $1.5 billion to set up a company called Calico.

Through this project, we want to understand the secrets of aging, so that human beings can live longer.

It's just that 10 years later, the company doesn't seem to have made any progress.

In addition to having more children, Musk has surpassed the realm of most of the rich and pursued digital immortality.

He believes that by downloading the brain to the robot, humans will eventually be able to live forever.

At the same time, he also believes that human beings should not try to make their bodies live very long, because it is very difficult for human beings to change their minds.

If the elderly do not die, then it will be very difficult for society to make progress.

Reference:

Https://www.nature.com/articles/s43587-023-00441-x

This article comes from the official account of Wechat: Xin Zhiyuan (ID:AI_era)

Welcome to subscribe "Shulou Technology Information " to get latest news, interesting things and hot topics in the IT industry, and controls the hottest and latest Internet news, technology news and IT industry trends.