Success of Swiss researchers: The aging process in mice was stopped with a new drug

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The mice receiving the drug showed improvement in their cognitive, visual and motor skills at the end of the treatment. This is because the drug improves the body’s cleansing system, the University of Freiburg explained on Friday.

Each of the 15 trillion cells in the human body produces waste products that must be recycled like other waste. However, as cells age, they lose their ability to effectively eliminate the waste products they produce. As a result, chronic inflammation spreads throughout the body.

This is especially evident in neurons, which are brain cells where waste products accumulate and can lead to cells dying. The results were published in a study in the journal Nature Communications.

The body’s cleansing system is called autophagy. Researchers led by Patricia Boya of the University of Freiburg found that despite the aging process, cells maintain a different type of autophagy called mitophagy. It specializes in clearing mitochondria, the power plants in cells.

In the study, researchers treated aging mice with the drug “Urolithin A,” previously known to stimulate mitophagy. As the study showed, inflammation was reduced in mice, which had positive consequences for the brain.

These results were also obtained in cell cultures from elderly human donors. However, many more studies are needed to know whether these results can actually be transferred to humans.

“The possibility of indirectly reducing age-related inflammation and disease through stimulation of mitophagy is a promising therapeutic approach that should be further investigated,” the researchers wrote in the study.

(SDA)

Source : Blick