Test time has arrived: the first person has been treated in a highly anticipated gene-therapy trial that aims to coax aged cells to take on a younger identity.
The clinical trial is testing an innovative technique that involves turning on three genes that can ‘partially reprogram’ old cells, allowing them to behave as if they were young again. Some scientists argue that partial reprogramming could rejuvenate old organs. But this trial will test the activation of these three genes as an approach for treating disease — in this case, a form of glaucoma, a condition that can cause blindness.
The hope is that the proteins encoded by the genes will enable regeneration of neurons in the optic nerve, which connects the eye to the brain and is damaged in people with glaucoma. These neurons are not normally capable of regeneration. The company sponsoring the trial, Life Biosciences in Boston, Massachusetts, announced today that it had treated its first participant.
World-first: therapy to make cells young again trialled in a person
American Buddhist Net 