By Julia Hancock
ROME (Reuters)
- Italian scientists said on Wednesday they may have found a way
to help slow down the aging process through experiments with genetically
modified mice and are trying to apply their discoveries to fight
muscular dystrophy.
Researchers
at Rome's La Sapienza University, working with scientists at the
University of Pennsylvania and the Massachusetts General Hospital
in the United States, have created genetically modified super-muscle
mice which are relatively immune to the muscle wasting that occurs
with aging.
Tests in Rome
have shown that a 22-month-old super-muscle laboratory mouse,
comparable in age to an 80-year-old human, has the same type of
muscle as a normal six-month-old mouse, equivalent in age to a
40-year-old human. The mice were genetically engineered to produce
a growth-promoting protein called muscle insulinlike growth factor
1 (mIgf1) only in their voluntary muscles -- those which control
conscious movement.
``The originality
of our research was to express the growth factor in a selective
way so it only affects voluntary muscles, thereby avoiding side
effects in the heart, kidney or other tissues,'' La Sapienza's
Antonio Musaro told Reuters.
Focus Now
On Muscular Dystrophy
The mIgf1
protein, normally found in muscles of healthy young people, holds
the properties which prevent muscle decay caused by aging and
certain muscle diseases, including some forms of muscular dystrophy.
Musaro said
the project was now concentrating on seeing how their research
could help fight the muscle wasting disease of muscular dystrophy.
``The goal
is to use these models to develop a therapy that can be used both
for old people, to reduce muscle wasting, and for sick people
with illnesses like muscular dystrophy,'' he added.
Musaro said
the project had also developed a therapeutic version of mIgf1
which can be directly injected into the aged muscles of a normal
lab mouse.
The effect
is the same as with the general variety of the protein, but it
is limited to the specific muscle into which the virus is injected,
rather than permeating all voluntary muscles.
``The experimental
phase of this therapy we hope will last five years before we can
start (human) trials,'' Musaro said.
The earliest
the therapy can be commercially available is in ten years time,
he added.
|
