A METHOD of turning the clock back to rejuvenate organs in the body may be within sight, new US research suggests.
By switching on an enzyme that holds back molecular ageing, scientists have been able to reverse tissue degeneration in mice.
Although the study provides only a "proof of concept", drugs are already being developed that might do the same in humans.
If proved to be safe such an approach may one day help to keep people evergreen, with young-looking skin, healthy bodies and alert brains.
The research focuses on telomeres.
Telomeres act much like the plastic tips of shoelaces, preventing strands of DNA from fraying and sticking to one another.
As they wear away they reach a point where cells can no longer divide and die. This is one of the key elements to ageing, and occurs at different rates in different individuals.
The US scientists showed that reactivating an enzyme called telomerase can rebuild shortened telomeres - and reverse ageing.
Telomerase is highly active in developing tissue but mostly dormant, or present at very low levels, in adult cells.
In their study, the researchers used a drug called 4-hydroxytamoxifen (4-OHT) to stimulate telomerase production in a strain of mice whose normal supply was shut off.
The mice had been bred until their telomeres were very short, resulting in widespread damage of the kind seen with ageing. Their fertility was impaired, they had tissue degeneration in the spleen and intestines, and their brains had reduced in size.
But after just four weeks of treatment with 4-OHT their organs began to regenerate. Even the effects of ageing in the brain were reversed.
The scientists wrote: "This unprecedented reversal of age-related decline in the central nervous system and other organs vital to adult mammalian health justifies exploration of telomere rejuvenation strategies for age-associated diseases."
Professor Tom Kirkwood, director of the Institute for Ageing at the University of Newcastle, highlighted the "ever-present anxiety" that telomerase reactivation was a hallmark of most cancers.
He said: "In summary, this is important research establishing firmly the principle that telomerase restoration, even when pathology has arisen through telomere erosion, is feasible.
"Just how significant it will prove for potential interventions in humans, where both the pattern of telomerase expression and the mechanistic basis of age-related diseases are somewhat different, is as yet uncertain."
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