A person ages as their epigenetic clock undergoes change in pattern, in the course of life. The chemical modifications that cause these changes determine one’s biological age, which can either lag behind or exceed chronological age. This is why some people look younger for their age while some, much older.
As far as modern science holds out, it is impossible to prevent aging. However, we may have found a way to reverse the process and restore the youthfulness by rewinding the clock within our body. For the first time, a small clinical study has suggested that it may be possible to reverse the epigenetic clock, a direct indicative of a person’s biological age.
So how do we age naturally? The thymus gland that sits in our chest between our lungs and breastbone secretes a growth hormone called Thymosin or ‘T-cells’ which is crucial for healthy immune system functioning. After puberty, this gland starts to shrink and becomes increasingly clogged with fat. This impacts our immunity and in turn, causes diabetes and cancer.
For making the treatment cocktail, scientists fused two anti-diabetic drugs - dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) and metformin and administered a regulated dose to nine volunteers for a year. By the end of the study, it was found that the volunteers had shed 2.5 years of their biological age, measured by analyzing marks on a person’s genomes.
The study was inspired by The Thymus Regeneration, Immunorestoration and Insulin Mitigation (TRIIM) trial led by Gregory Fahy that tested 9 white men between 51 and 65 years of age. The trial that involved transplanting growth hormone-secreting cells into the participants, found that the treatment not only did lessen the biological effect of aging in seven men, but also rejuvenated their immune system.
The latest trial was designed mainly to test whether the growth hormone is safe to use on humans so as to restore the tissues in their thymus gland, but it yielded greater and unexpected results. A significant reversal of each participant’s biological age was observed, who were screened for four epigenetic clocks.
Geneticist Steve Horvath at the University of California in Los Angeles. the US who conducted the epigenetic analysis told Nature, “This told me that the biological effect of the treatment was robust.” What’s more, the effect persisted in the six participants who provided a final blood sample six months after stopping the trial.