Drug could treat progeria

• April 25, 2024

The progeria , a disease that causes aging accelerated in children, it could be treated with a drug (acetilcisteía-n ) that can prolong your life expectancy without adverse effects.

Children with progeria they have an average life expectancy of 13 years. Their cells They have important defects that researchers have classified into two categories: damage to DNA and physical abnormalities in the form of cell .

According to information published in the portal of BBC World , these patients age at a rate eight times faster than normal, suffer from heart problems, and their organs degenerate as occurs in the adult aging process.

Scientists of the University of Durham , England, affirm that they managed to reverse some of the effects that this degeneration causes in the organism of those who suffer this disease .

The research, published in Human Molecular Genetics, points out that the progeria is caused in part by damage from DNA caused by highly reactive oxygen chemical agents, called reactive oxygen species (ERO).

The teacher Christopher Hutchinson , who led the study, explains that trials with drugs to correct cell shape problems are proving successful.

The team of the University of Durham found that the levels of damage caused by EROs are five to 10 times larger in the cells of patients with aging accelerated.

For the study with cells in the laboratory, the researchers used the acetylcysteine-n , which is already used to prevent damage to liver in patients who have suffered an overdose of paracetamol.

The drug absorbed the ERO, and the damage to DNA in the cells it returned to "almost normal levels", the scientists point out; however, it is still not known what the effect of the drug will be in children with Progeria, or how it will work with other medications.

"I must say that this is one more piece in the puzzle that will eventually generate treatments for us, for now it is one more piece," said Hutchinson.

Because the disease is extremely rare, it is not possible to carry out a clinical trial of the drug, because the Progeria Research Foundation reports only 78 children who are known to have disease in the world.

"Professor Hutchinson's study has not only confirmed the basic cellular defects of progeria, but has also identified potential ways to improve those defects," says Dr. Leslie Gordon, the Foundation's medical director.

The researchers indicate that this finding could have a very important impact on how to decrease the process of aging human, in addition to that it could lead to the development of new treatments to combat the harmful effects of old age .

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Video Medicine: Progeria clinical trial at Boston Children's Hospital (April 2024).