Reverse aging? Scientists discover protein that could turn hearts younger

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No matter how young an individual may feel at heart, little can currently be done to counteract the effects of natural cardiovascular aging. As an adults ages, his or her heart grows larger and its walls thicken, often leading to a disease known as diastolic heart failure. This is the most common form of age-related heart failure and despite the fact that it affects millions, there is no known treatment.

However, in a breakthrough discovery, researchers at Harvard University have pinpointed a protein that, when injected into the blood of mice, is able to reverse aging in the heart within 30 days – effectively turning old hearts young again.

“We’ve developed this potentially broadly-acting rejuvenative protein and we are excited to understand its potential in humans,” study author Amy Wagers, a professor of stem cell and regenerative biology at Harvard University, told FoxNews.com.

Wagers and her colleagues identified the protein, known as GDF-11, over many years of research. Because aging occurs more or less uniformly throughout the body, the researchers had long suspected that one specific factor essentially signals to all of the body’s tissues how they should function as a context of age.

“We looked in the blood stream, because the blood carries things to all parts of the body; that would be a logical place for that substance to be traveling,” Wagers said.

Eventually, they zeroed in on the protein GDF-11.

“(The protein) was very high in the blood of young mice and low in the blood of old mice, suggesting that could have an impact on aging,” Wagers said.

After discovering the protein, Wagers and her colleagues decided to study the impact it had on cardiovascular aging. They injected GDF-11 into the blood streams of older mice in order to increase their GDF-11 levels to match the levels found in younger mice.

After 30 days, the researchers examined the hearts of the older mice, which had previously shown thickened walls similar to those in older humans. The researchers found that the thickening had reversed, and the hearts of the older mice now looked almost identical to those of the younger mice.  

“The older hearts really did look almost the same at a gross anatomy level. I’m certain there are still some differences, but it was quite dramatic how much rejuvenation (there was),” Wagers said.

While previous research has shown regenerative treatment through the use of stem cells in spinal and muscular-skeletal systems, Wagers and her team were shocked to discover that a protein could have a regenerative effect on the heart.

“I was very surprised, actually,” Wagers said. “The process I had in my mind was that it was a process of controlling function in normally regenerative tissues and replacing cells all the time.”

Because GDF-11 can be circulated through the blood system, it offers a “very therapeutically accessible opportunity,” Wagers noted.

Researchers estimate that four to five more years of testing and research still needs to be done before clinical trials could begin.  However, Wagers and her colleagues hope to one day use this discovery to help reverse cardiovascular aging in humans as well.

“We hope that by providing this protein, we could reverse that heart enlargement, and that would have a benefit to the many patients who have this form of heart disease,” Wagers said.

This research was published on May 9 in the journal Cell. 

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A vaccine for herpes? Researchers discover immune cells that suppress HSV-2 infection

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Genital herpes is one of the most common types of sexually transmitted infections (STI) in the United States – as well as one of the most frustrating.  Characterized by periodic blisters on the genitals, rectum or mouth, there is currently no cure for the disease, and it can only be managed by antiviral medications which help shorten outbreak periods.

However, a new study may provide hope for those suffering from this STI. Researchers have identified a subtype of immune cells that suppress outbreaks of genital herpes caused by the herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV-2).

The discovery could lead to a vaccine capable of preventing herpes lesions on people who have already contracted the STI – or in other words, a vaccine that could “clinically cure” an individual of herpes symptoms.

The newly identified T-cells, called CD8aa+ T-cells, reveal a great deal more information about genital herpes than was initially known.  

“What we found was that (these T-cells) are turned on and making all sorts of antiviral substances,” lead author Dr. Larry Corey, an internationally renowned virologist and president and director of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, Wash., told FoxNews.com.  “When the virus reactivates, they are the first cells in to contain the virus, and we showed they contain it very well. They can contain it before the virus escapes above the skin.”

Before this study, researchers believed that herpes reactivation was controlled at the ganglion level of the spinal canal area. But using a technique called laser capture, Corey and his colleagues were able to biopsy and analyze RNA pieces of human tissue from the dermal-epidermal junction (DEJ), where the dermis – the outer layer of skin – connects to the epidermis – the layer of tissue just below the skin’s surface.  The team discovered that these CD8aa+ T-cells are located in the DEJ and are responsible for controlling HSV-2 – implying that herpes reactivation is controlled in the skin, not the spine.

Not only did the research team make this significant discovery about the T-cells’ location, they also found that the CD8aa+ T-cells are programmed to remain in the skin surrounding the genitals at all times – making them resident memory T-cells.  The cells’ long-term persistence may explain why patients have asymptomatic recurrences of genital herpes, because the cells are constantly doing “immune surveillance” – always working to find and destroy HSV-2.

“The real implication here is that the way herpes seems to act is that the virus is actually reactivating very frequently,” Corey said.  “The human immune response is containing it most of the time.”

Researchers had originally estimated that herpes reactivated once a month, but the discovery of these ever-present T-cells led Corey and his team to believe the virus actually reactivates once a week or every few days.  So when herpes lesions occur, it is because there were not enough CD8aa+ T-cells to suppress the outbreak, Corey said.

CD8aa+ T-cells were previously known to exist in the gut mucosa, but most of the research on CD8+ T-cells focused on studying them in blood circulation.  Corey and his team were the first to find the phenotype of CD8aa+ T-cells to persist in the skin.  He said that a potential herpes vaccine would focus on increasing these cells in the immune system.

“It gives us a marker by which one can test vaccines,” Corey said.  “A vaccine that will increase the number or function of these cells would be one you would want to develop.  I don’t think there would be any side effects.”

The vaccine could potentially stop individuals from experiencing outbreaks – the times when a person is most contagious.  Generally, a person can only contract HSV-2 infections during sexual intercourse with an infected individual; however, transmission can still occur when the infected individual does not have a visible sore.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 776,000 people in the United States are infected with herpes each year, and one out of six people between the ages of 14 and 49 have genital HSV-2 infection. While this vaccine would not cure those of HSV-2, it could ultimately help stop the spread of this very prevalent STI.

“We think it’s possible to contain,” Corey said.  “It’s a ‘clinical cure.’”

The research is published in the May 8 advance online edition of Nature.

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Scientists discover potential cure for gray hair

Published May 06, 2013

FoxNews.com

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Forget hair dye - scientists may have discovered a more permanent way to get rid of grays, Medical Daily reported.

Gray hair is thought to be caused by an accumulation of hydrogen peroxide in the roots of hair follicles, which causes harmful oxidative stress. The same phenomenon is also linked to a skin condition called vitiligo, which leads to patchy pigmentation in skin and can cause eyelashes to turn white, Medical Daily reported.

In a new study, researchers analyzed skin biopsies of a group of people suffering from vitiligo and discovered that patients had low levels of an enzyme called catalase, which helps break down hydrogen peroxide and relieve oxidative stress.

Researchers then treated vitiligo patients with a cream containing a ‘pseudo-catalase,’ which can be activated by sunlight. After patients applied the cream, and spent time in the sun, pigment returned in both their skin and eyelashes.

Based on this finding, researchers believe  a similar cream, applied to the hair, could restore color to strands that have gone gray, according to Medical Daily.

"For generations, numerous remedies have been concocted to hide gray hair," said Dr. Gerald Weissmann, editor-in-chief of  The Journal of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, which published the study, "but now, for the first time, an actual treatment that gets to the root of the problem has been developed.”

Click for more from Medical Daily.

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