New anti-aging vaccine moves closer toward human trials

Researchers have shown a new experimental vaccine's success in eliminating aging cells in mice, prolonging their lives and helping reverse age-related disease.

Over the past decade, scientists have developed "senolytic therapies," drugs designed to clear senescent cells from the body. Senescent cells have stopped multiplying but haven't died and instead start accumulating. As we age, the immune system cannot clear these cells as efficiently.

Senescent cells can damage nearby healthy cells by releasing compounds that trigger inflammation. The build-up of senescent cells is associated with many age-related diseases, including cancer, Alzheimer's, and atherosclerosis. Dozens of drugs that have been developed thus far have entered human clinical trials.

A new approach by Paul Robbins at the University of Minnesota has shown the viability of a vaccine, which could be administered to combat the accrual of these cells in the first place, in contrast to a drug that tackles their presence. The vaccine would train a patient's immune system to look for senescent cells and destroy them, eliminating the need for recurring drug treatments.

The research team developed a vaccine to target a protein associated with atherosclerosis, administering it to a group of afflicted mice and placebos to another. The mice were around a year and a half old, and it was shown those administered the vaccine moved faster and were capable of more activity than the other old mice in the placebo group. The researchers also found that the vaccine group lived slightly longer than the placebo.

The team observed no side effects from the vaccine. They are aware of the possibility of a vaccine without sufficient specificity targeting otherwise healthy cells, which they will look out for as they move their vaccine toward human trials.

You can read more from their study, published in Nature Aging, here.