Anti-ageing is now a possibility, as suggested by researchers!
| Updated: Jun 27, 2018, 14:20 IST
We're constantly providing you with tips to look younger whether it is by keeping fit or delaying the process with beauty products. Well, today we have got you something better! A new study conducted by Marshall University demonstrated the Na/K-ATPase oxidant amplification loop (NAKL) that’s intimately involved in the ageing process. And this study may serve, in the future, as a target for anti-ageing interventions.
The researchers involved in this study were able to prove and demonstrate the therapeutic potential of pNaKtide, a synthetic peptide, in improving impaired physiological functions and disease development. Joseph I. Shapiro, a researcher on this subject said, "I believe that our team has not only implicated the NAKL discovered by our colleague, Dr Zijian Xie, in the ageing process but identified a novel therapeutic target as well as a specific pharmacological strategy to actually slow the ageing process. Although it will be some time before we can test these concepts in human subjects, I am cautiously optimistic that clinical therapeutics will ultimately result."
How did this study kick off? It started off by doing a year-long research focused on ageing mice who were given a western diet to stimulate oxidant stress to antagonize the NAKL. The western diet increased the functional and structural evidence for ageing; however, the introduction of pNaKtide slowed these changes in the mice. The same results were then replicated when human dermal fibroblasts were exposed to different types of oxidant stress in vitro by stimulating the NAKL, increasing expression of senescence markers, and causing cell injury. With the pNaKtide treatment, researchers showed that the negative attributes to ageing were damped.
The researchers involved in this study were able to prove and demonstrate the therapeutic potential of pNaKtide, a synthetic peptide, in improving impaired physiological functions and disease development. Joseph I. Shapiro, a researcher on this subject said, "I believe that our team has not only implicated the NAKL discovered by our colleague, Dr Zijian Xie, in the ageing process but identified a novel therapeutic target as well as a specific pharmacological strategy to actually slow the ageing process. Although it will be some time before we can test these concepts in human subjects, I am cautiously optimistic that clinical therapeutics will ultimately result."
How did this study kick off? It started off by doing a year-long research focused on ageing mice who were given a western diet to stimulate oxidant stress to antagonize the NAKL. The western diet increased the functional and structural evidence for ageing; however, the introduction of pNaKtide slowed these changes in the mice. The same results were then replicated when human dermal fibroblasts were exposed to different types of oxidant stress in vitro by stimulating the NAKL, increasing expression of senescence markers, and causing cell injury. With the pNaKtide treatment, researchers showed that the negative attributes to ageing were damped.