Revel Scientists Create Enzyme That Removes 1 Common AGE, Reversing Tissue Aging Changes
Updated
Updated · The New York Times · Jul 24
Revel Scientists Create Enzyme That Removes 1 Common AGE, Reversing Tissue Aging Changes
3 articles · Updated · The New York Times · Jul 24
Summary
A July 16 Nature Communications study says Revel Pharmaceuticals scientists engineered an enzyme that clears one common advanced glycation end product from human tissue, reversing some age-related damage after it has already formed.
AGEs build up over decades as sugars react with proteins and fats, stiffening collagen and driving inflammation linked to heart disease, eye damage, kidney disease and diabetes.
The approach shifts the field from trying to block AGE formation—which researchers have long failed to do—to removing the compounds directly from longer-lived tissues such as collagen, which has a roughly 15-year half-life.
Researchers and outside experts called the result an early but notable proof that structural aging changes in tissue may be reversible, though aging itself remains far more complex.