Treatment for accelerated aging within reach - forskning.se

Drugs that inhibit a certain enzyme can probably be used as a treatment for accelerated aging, progeria, in children. A study by researchers at the Sahlgrenska Academy shows that the development of progeria in mice were prevented when the researchers reduced the production of the enzyme.

accelerated aging, or progeria, a rare but deadly disease. Children with the disease die on average at age 13. Photo: PRF.

journal Science Express publishes the scientific article to findings will be known quickly.

class=”normal”> – It’s a major breakthrough after many years of work for our research. When we inhibits the enzyme prevented the development of any clinical symptoms in mice, and we have also studied cultured cells from children with progeria and found that growth was normalized when the enzyme was inhibited, says Martin Bergö, professor at the Sahlgrenska Academy, Göteborg University, and director of research at the Sahlgrenska Cancer Center.

class=”normal”> Progeria is a rare, fatal disease in children that makes them appear to age prematurely. Children are dying on average at age 13 of heart attack, stroke or other cardiovascular disease.

class=”normal”> Progeria is caused by a genetic mutation that leads to protein prelamin A is not working as it should. Prel Amin A is essential for the stability of the membrane that surrounds the nucleus.

class=”normal”> The enzyme research group identified as a target for treatment of progeria called ICMT, and its purpose is to change prelamin A.

class=”normal”> – We work with a team of researchers in Singapore have developed two drug candidates that we are going to test in mice with progeria. Since the drugs have not been tested on humans yet, it will take some years before we might have an approved drug for progeria, says Martin Bergö.

class=”normal”> Although progeria is only at a few hundred children throughout the world believed the new findings bring attention.

class=”normal”> – is because progeria resembles natural human aging, and can serve as a model for many of the diseases we get as we grow old. Children get osteoporosis, heart attack, stroke, they become weak muscles, grow poorly and lose their hair, but interestingly enough, they either dementia or cancer, said Martin Bergö, which also examines how the natural aging process in mice is affected when the enzyme is inhibited.

class=”normal”> article: Targeting Isoprenylcysteine ??Methylation Improves Disease Phenotypes in a Mouse Model of Accelerated Aging .

Read more about the research.

class=”normal”> picture shows Zach Pickard, Ambassador of the Progeria Research Foundation. Photo: Progeria Research Foundation.