A renowned Harvard professor has said advances being made in anti-ageing science could help patients left blinded by rare eye conditions to see again.
David Sinclair, a professor in the department of genetics at the prestigious US university, told Dubai's World Governments Summit that developments in the field were crucial, amid concerns over a rise in eye conditions linked to weight loss drugs.
GLP-1 drugs, such as Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro, have been associated with a rare irreversible eye condition called non-arteritic anterior ischaemic optic neuropathy that leads to permanent vision loss.
Currently found in only one in 10,000 patients who wake up blind after taking weight loss drugs, the condition could become more common as GLP-1 drugs become more widely used.
Research that has seen glaucoma – a degenerative eye condition – reversed in mice could translate to humans, and begin a new era of age-reversing treatments.
Eye stroke
Speaking about his latest anti-ageing research at the global gathering, Dr Sinclair said science had potential to restore vision in those blinded by “eye stroke”.
“There are genes that can rejuvenate a cell back to a stem cell, back to age 0, which we use all the time now in the lab and increasingly in therapies,” he said.
“This shows you can rejuvenate cells, make them young again, and even regrow the tissue. This regeneration works in the damaged optic nerves in a mouse.
“We were able to show that using this method, we could cure blindness in animals for the first time.
“Now we're going to be treating glaucoma, which is very prevalent in this region. The next disease is a stroke in the eye, where you can wake up blind.
“There's three times more of this condition now than 10 years ago because of weight loss drugs, which increase the frequency of blindness.
“We believe we can treat every tissue, and eventually do a whole body reset to be young again, and it takes about six weeks.”
Upgrade for 'medieval' health care
Dr Sinclair called current standards of health care “medieval” compared to the advances he expects to become commonplace in the next decade.
He said ageing was a treatable medical condition and the main driver for multiple life-limiting conditions, including heart disease, Alzheimer’s and cancer.
By understanding more about why we grow old, and treating the human body as a computer that can have software updates by upgrading our DNA, it was possible to slow biological age, he said.
Dr Sinclair is the co-founder of several biotechnology companies and of the journal Aging. He has written several books about longevity.
His research has raised $80 million of funding, and is being supported by M42, the Abu Dhabi-based tech-focused healthcare company.
“At Harvard Medical School we are pushing the boundaries of what is possible with human health,” he said.
“Slowing ageing can dramatically improve the GDP of a country because people are not sick and they are more productive.
“Even if you slow ageing by one year, for the United States, for example, that's an extra $38 trillion.
“It is clear to me, and many of my colleagues around the world, that our generation is going to witness the biggest change in health since the inventions of clean water and vaccines – our ability to control our own biology.
“This may only be between 10 and 20 years in the future.”
