For the November episode of the Journal Club, Dr. Oliver Medvedik will be reviewing a new study from a team of researchers including Professor George Church. The study saw the deployment of a multiple target gene therapy focused on 3 known longevity genes delivered via an adeno-associated virus. The focus was on mitigating T2 diabetes, heart failure, and kidney failure in mouse models with very positive results observed. Join us on Tuesday, 26th November, 1pm EDT on our Facebook page for the livestream show.
Comorbidity is common as age increases, and currently prescribed treatments often ignore the interconnectedness of the involved age-related diseases. The presence of any one such disease usually increases the risk of having others, and new approaches will be more effective at increasing an individual’s health span by taking this systems-level view into account. In this study, we developed gene therapies based on 3 longevity associated genes (fibroblast growth factor 21 [FGF21], αKlotho, soluble form of mouse transforming growth factor-β receptor 2 [sTGFβR2]) delivered using adeno-associated viruses and explored their ability to mitigate 4 age-related diseases: obesity, type II diabetes, heart failure, and renal failure. Individually and combinatorially, we applied these therapies to disease-specific mouse models and found that this set of diverse pathologies could be effectively treated and in some cases, even reversed with a single dose. We observed a 58% increase in heart function in ascending aortic constriction ensuing heart failure, a 38% reduction in α-smooth muscle actin (αSMA) expression, and a 75% reduction in renal medullary atrophy in mice subjected to unilateral ureteral obstruction and a complete reversal of obesity and diabetes phenotypes in mice fed a constant high-fat diet. Crucially, we discovered that a single formulation combining 2 separate therapies into 1 was able to treat all 4 diseases. These results emphasize the promise of gene therapy for treating diverse age-related ailments and demonstrate the potential of combination gene therapy that may improve health span and longevity by addressing multiple diseases at once.
Literature
Davidsohn, N., Pezzone, M., Vernet, A., Graveline, A., Oliver, D., Slomovic, S., … & Church, G. M. (2019). A single combination gene therapy treats multiple age-related diseases. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
