The discovery of an anti-ageing gene found in those who often live to 100 years or more could offer treatment solutions to patients with heart failure.
Scientists from the University of Bristol and the MultiMedica Group in Italy believe the gene helps keep their hearts young by protecting them against diseases linked to ageing, such as heart failure.
The research team, assisted by funding from the British Heart Foundation, discovered that one of the healthy genes can protect cells collected from patients with heart failures requiring a heart transplant.
They found that a single administration of the mutant anti-ageing gene halted the decay of heart function in middle aged mice.
Furthermore, when the gene was given to elderly mice, whose hearts mimic the same alteration seen in elderly patients, the gene wound back the heart's biological clock age by the human equivalent of more than 10 years.
Professor Madeddu, Professor of Experimental Cardiovascular Medicine from Bristol Heart Institute at the University of Bristol said: “The heart and blood vessel function is put at stake as we age. However, the rate at which these harmful changes occur is different among people. Smoking, alcohol, and sedentary life make the ageing clock faster. Whereas eating well and exercising delay the heart’s ageing clock.”
Professor James Leiper, our Associate Medical Director, said:
“We all want to know the secrets of ageing and how we might slow down age-related disease. Our heart function declines with age but this research has extraordinarily revealed that a variant of a gene that is commonly found in long-lived people can halt and even reverse ageing of the heart in mice.
"This is still early stage research, but could one day provide a revolutionary way to treat people with heart failure and even stop the debilitating condition from developing in the first place.”
Professor Madeddu added: “Our findings confirm the healthy mutant gene can reverse the decline of heart performance in older people. We are now interested in determining if giving the protein instead of the gene can also work. Gene therapy is widely used to treat diseases caused by bad genes. However, a treatment based on a protein is safer and more viable than gene therapy.”
The research was also funded by the Italian Ministry of Health.
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