Young Blood

efoehr

Recently researchers and ambitious start-ups have promoted the idea that young blood may be used to reverse the aging process. This idea has roots going back thousands of years of human history. A company is offering $8000 for an infusion of plasma from a young donor. But the FDA pushed back with a warning that there is little evidence to support the companies claim: (https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/fda-issues-warning-about-young-blood-transfusions/).

But what could be learned from the study of young blood versus 'old blood'? Perhaps identifying differences in circulating stem cells, hormones, growth factors, anti-oxidants or other factors may be revealed that could advance our knowledge of the aging process. Or maybe removal of harmful factors from the old blood is the key to longevity?

Let us know what proof is needed to bolster the claim that young blood is benefiicial?

NickOttens

@anttipe, @sully, @Wei, what are your thoughts on this?

NickOttens

@Avik, @joannabensz, have you heard about this? What is your opinion?

efoehr

There are more than a few researchers studying circulating molecules and cells linked to aging (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5635266/pdf/fcvm-04-00062.pdf ).
Cancer, Cardiovascular disease, and Alzheimer's account for over half of "All Cause Mortality" in the developed world. These diseases have readily identifiable circulating biomarkers--targets for treatment, removal, or supplementation. Addition or removal of circulating factors seems like a viable treatment. But the approach needs to be specific and scientifically justified with clinical trials. Just infusing blood from young people into old people seems like an awkward first attempt.

NickOttens

@NikolaiKirienko, @LifespanKeith, @JoshuaN1993, what do you think about this?

NikolaiKirienko

This is a wild guess— but my hunch is that it’s a combination of factors one would expect to find in optimally healthy blood, vs micronutrient depleted blood: more oxygen saturated HgB, higher Crit, B12, Iron, etc. Take the supplements IV and complete 20 consecutive hyperbaric dives, and I’d wager anyone’s blood could be mistaken for young blood, and they’d feel as much improvement, with less risk for the same price.

NickOttens

From Bloomberg:

Young Blood to Reverse Aging? It's Quackery Now But Has Potential

This month, scientists published a demonstration that two proteins isolated from young blood changed the behavior of human neurons in culture – stimulating them to grow new connections. The paper, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences – doesn’t show it will work in people, but leaves the possibility open.

In medicine, that’s enough to attract lots of entrepreneurs. One startup, called Ambrosia, has already begun transfusing customers for $8,000 $1,200 a liter, according to a piece in Business Insider. In February, in response to such practice, the FDA issued an official warning that transfusions of young blood offered “no proven clinical benefit” for either normal aging or Alzheimer’s disease.

But the principle isn’t crazy. One of the authors on the PNAS paper, Stanford biochemist Thomas Sudhof, won the 2013 Nobel Prize for elucidating the way cells communicate. He said that he was intrigued by some of the studies in mice that showed blood from younger individuals rejuvenated the brains of older ones – improving their abilities to learn and remember.

Click here to read the rest.