Molecular Immortality: The Quest for Eternal Youth

However, on March 12^th of this year, Geron granted an exclusive global license to a anti-aging spa called T.A. Sciences (an offshoot of Asia Biotech) enabling it to sell one of their small telomerase-activating molecules, a derivative of the herb Astragalus membrancaceus, as a non-prescription youth-enhancing "dietary supplement, nutraceutical, and cosmetic." Calling the molecule TA-65, or "The Patton Molecule" (after the head of a family appliance manufacturing business who financed T.A. Sciences), TA-65 is being touted as a magic molecule that can immortalize cells and reverse the effects of aging. "Introducing the molecule that makes cells young again," says the advertising.

"Quacks flourish" in the multi-billion dollar a year unregulated anti-aging marketplace, cautions John Grimley Evans from the University of Oxford. But what are the risks of telomerase stimulation? And why is Geron involved?

The easy answer is money. According to New York City biotechnology consultant, Jahanara Ali: "After 15 years in business and no income-generating product, Geron may be hoping that nutraceutical sales brings in badly needed capital —although this seems like a terrible strategy if they wish to remain credible."

Selling an Astragalus extract as a supplement is far easier than marketing it as a drug. "In contrast to the requirements for approval of a new drug, dietary supplements are held to a much lower standard," say the University of Pennsylvania's James Lewis and Brian Strom. And, since U.S. citizens spend an estimated $6 billion a year on anti-aging nostrums [Evans, review (135)], Geron may view this as an easy way to bolster their bottom line. They could be right. When Kate Scannell, a practicing rheumatologist and geriatrician in Oakland, California did an "anti-aging" Google search last year she came up with nearly 18.7 million hits. Obviously there's a big market out there for "fountain-of-youth" miracles in pill form; and as baby boomers are dragged into old age kicking and screaming, the market is likely to become ever more lucrative.

1994 —Enter, the Snake Oil Protection Act

In contrast, "supplements" make "structure/function" claims only (as, for example, maintains a healthy immune system) and are virtually exempt from FDA scrutiny. The Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA), dubbed the "Snake Oil Protection Act" by the NY Times, shifts the burden of proving safety onto the FDA, requiring it to prove a "supplement" is unsafe before the agency can take regulatory action. Dietary supplements, which include vitamins, minerals, herbs or other botanicals, and amino acids, do not need FDA approval before they are marketed.

"DSHEA," says Donald Marcus, of Baylor College of Medicine "was a brilliant industry tactic that has allowed these treatments to largely escape regulation by the FDA." Unfortunately, consumers have the misguided idea that medications sold as supplements are safe and gentle, which is often untrue. Many products are sold without evidence of efficacy or proof of safety by people without scientific or medical training, warns Marcus.

Selling a "Jekel and Hyde" Enzyme

Notably, it was Calvin Harley, Geron's research chief, who helped establish telomerase-inhibition as a growth-limiting factor for cancer cells. In 2005, Harley and colleagues told readers of the journal Oncogene that because "The vast majority of human cancers express telomerase activity, while somatic cells do not…it is an attractive target for selective cancer therapy."And, in fact, Geron currently has a very promising telomerase-inhibitor drug, GRN163L in clinical testing for malignancies including chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), multiple myeloma and lung cancer. Furthermore, telomerase is such a reliable tumor antigen that Geron and Merck are collaborating on dendritic cell-based anti-cancer vaccines. Clinical trials of their first product, GRNVAC1, for acute myelogenous leukemia, are scheduled to begin sometime this year.

Yet, unfortunately, nothing about the cancer risk inherent in flooding the body with a telomerase-stimulating supplement is currently in evidence on TA Sciences' website (www.tasciences.com).

______________Side Bar_____________

However, an enzyme called telomerase, first described by cell biologists Elizabeth Blackburn, Carol Greider and Jack Szostak in the 1980s, can restore telomere length, thereby increasing a cell's functional lifespan. But as Elizabeth Blackburn pointed out to science journalist Stephen Hall in 2003, there is a major scientific misunderstanding in the assumption that you can reverse aging by manipulating one simple enzyme. Yes, in vitro studies indicate that telomerase dysfunction plays a role in human-cell senescence, but a connection between telomere shortening and aging in the context of a whole organism has never been established. In fact, merely lengthening dysfunctional telomeres probably won't do very much good according to Ramiro Verdun and Jan Karlseder from the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, California. Telomere structure, not telomere length, is the main determinant of function they say; simply lengthening structurally damaged telomeres is not likely to re-establish them as protective units.

Ominously though, in contrast to normal somatic cells in which human telomerase is tightly repressed, cancer cells are somehow able to reactivate the enzyme, escape mortality and reproduce indefinitely. According to Jerry Shay at the U of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, "There are thousands of publications supporting the association between tumorigenesis and activation of telomerase."

_____________________________________________

Reference List