New Frontiers of Aging Reversal and Aging-Related Diseases Reprogramming

Abstract

How would you like to stay 25 forever?To some extent, it might be not a dream in the future to reverse the aging and agingrelated diseases. Certainly, aging was thus far programmed by natural selection during evolution so eventually inevitable [1-2]. However, performance can come from a cost. Through systematical modifications of the Genome Regulatory Network (GRN) and/or proteome, human cell and tissue engineering could couple with such inevitability by means of cellular reprogramming, genome editing [3] and tissue regenerative engineering. Many reviews previously speculated that the exhaustion of adult stem cell promotes the ageing and degenerative diseases, shortening the longevity [4]. Indeed, one of latest exciting investigations shows us the case of age reversal: implanting young stem cells to rejuvenate aging stem cells. Interestingly, the research team injected the stem like /progenitor cells into the abdomens of 17-day-old progeria mice, which generally have a lifespan of 21 to 28 days, some of them have a robust health and a life span up to 66 days [5]. Progeria is a disease that causes abnormally accelerated aging, such as loss of muscle mass,mesodermal/mesenchymal defects, accelerated atherosclerosis, neurodegeneration, osteoporosis, and trembling. It has been genetically shown that the deficiency of Lamina A (also the components of its embedded Mi-2/Nucelosome Remodeling and histone Deacetylation, i.e. NuRD complex) causes the chromatin old and leads thus to ageing [4,6]. After receiving the injection of stem cells, the mice recipients showed new blood vessel growth in the brain and muscle, improvement of health and increase of longevity. The injections of stem cells also delayed the onset of the majority of aging-related symptomsin a less acute model of accelerated aging. Intriguingly, the “labelled” injected cells went all over the place rather than home in on muscle or one kind of tissue.It raised the suspicion that the cells were secreting something that was kick-start regenerative capacity in whole organisms but effectively staving off aging [5]. This somehow mimics the kick-start of OSKM reprogramming of the cell pluripotency in cellular engineering [3,7], namely, to hit one node in the network, then spread to the whole system. We can view it with system biology: as on one balloon, to touch one starting point, the pressure reshapes the whole balloon.