Friedberg describes Altos Labs raising three billion dollars to pursue epigenetic partial reprogramming using Yamanaka factors for cellular rejuvenation.
“They raised about $3,000,000,000 in startup funding, and they're pursuing this kind of epigenetic partial reprogramming of cells to make them more youthful.”
Friedberg cites recent Harvard research showing aging may be driven by epigenome dysfunction rather than DNA mutations.
“And increasingly, there's evidence as published a few weeks ago in two different papers, including one out of led by a team out of Harvard, that it may be dysfunctions not in the genome and the DNA, but actually dysfunctions in the epigenome, which is the molecules that sit on the DNA.”
Friedberg says dysfunctional mitochondria may be a key driver for cancers, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, ALS, and autism.
“So every cell in our body gets its energy, which is what it uses to function from the mitochondria.”
Friedberg says Columbia's first brain mitochondria map suggests dysfunction drives memory loss and aging symptoms.
“The second paper was done, last month out of Columbia University, and this was the first mapping of the mitochondria in the human brain.”
Friedberg explains that partial application of Yamanaka factors can reverse aging in cells without converting them to stem cells.
“In 2016, another scientist published a series of papers showing that instead of putting a lot of those four proteins on the cell, you could put a small amount.”
Friedberg emphasizes the enzyme worked on skin from patients over 70 years old.
“This is from greater than 70 year old patients just by putting this enzyme on the skin.”
Friedberg explains CML is the predominant aging molecule in extracellular matrix that nothing naturally breaks down.
“CML is kind of the predominant molecule that that gets formed in this extracellular matrix that's driving aging, and nothing breaks it down. So these scientists set out to try and create an enzyme.”
Friedberg describes scientists reversing skin age from over 70 to 31 by eliminating 55% of CML.
“And they put this enzyme onto that skin, and they were able to eliminate 55% of the CML on the skin, basically reverse the skin's age down to the age of a 31 year old.”
Friedberg suggests the enzyme could be delivered simply as a topical skin cream.
“If you could put this enzyme literally on your skin and have it absorb in cream?”
Friedberg reports that the enzyme eliminated 52 to 97% of CML from body proteins including collagen and hemoglobin.
“They started to test it on the proteins that we would find in our body, casine, collagen, retinal proteins, which are in your eye, hemoglobin, and they were able to get rid of 52 to 97% of the CML, just degraded away.”