An international research team led by Brock has found a way to treat immunotherapy that may extend the healthy ageing process by several years. The study, which was published in the journal EMBO Molecular Medicine, offers a novel strategy to deal with health problems brought on by bad lifestyle decisions, which can harm biomolecules and have a role in the later onset of diseases.
Newman Sze, a professor of health sciences, and his colleagues have developed a method that involves teaching the immune system to eliminate accumulated proteins damaged by sedentary lifestyles, poor diets, stress, genetics, and other factors that are the foundation of ageing and age-related illnesses.
Sze, who holds the Canada Research Chair in Mechanisms of Health and Disease, states that “age-related chronic diseases are a major health care burden.” “We therefore developed a first-of-its-kind monoclonal antibody drug that harnesses the immune system to target and remove these abnormal proteins, providing an effective treatment for age-related health problems.”
Biomolecular damage in tissues is a result of physiological conditions and environmental stressors over time. One of these mutations, isoDGR, causes tissue deterioration and chronic inflammation in the body.
Chronic inflammation that is out of control can consequently result in diseases like Alzheimer’s, diabetes, cancer, heart disease, and arthritis.
Although the build-up of isoDGR has been recognised as a “molecular clock” of ageing, the new study report claims that little is known about the possible advantages of targeting these structures with particular immunotherapies.
Isolated DGR-mAb monoclonal antibodies were developed by Sze and his colleagues. These proteins were created in a lab and are intended to strengthen the immune system’s capacity to combat pathogenic cells or aberrant molecules. These immunotherapies are already being used to treat infectious diseases, autoimmune conditions, and a variety of cancers.
The researchers discovered, through the use of animal models, that these engineered molecules stimulated the immune system to eliminate the proteins in tissues that isoDGR had damaged.
In addition to doubling longevity, isoDGR-mAb treatment maintained behaviour and motor skills and decreased pro-inflammatory cytokine levels in bodily tissues and circulation.
According to Sze, the team’s discoveries may result in the creation of immunotherapy-based treatments that increase people’s healthy life spans.
“The existing treatments for age-related diseases primarily address symptoms,” Sze states. “Our pioneering mAb, uniquely focused on targeting the root causes of chronic diseases, is anticipated to substantially extend human health span.”
Sze holds a Canada Research Chair and focuses on age-related diseases, particularly those that affect the blood vessels and brain. His lab has produced novel medications to direct the immune system to get rid of aberrant biomolecules as well as new research techniques to look into how bodily tissues deteriorate over time.
In this most recent publication, “Immunotherapy targeting isoDGR-protein damage extends lifespan in a mouse model of protein deamidation,” scientists from Brock University collaborated with researchers from Singapore, China, the UK, and New Zealand.
