AGING REVERSE AGOGS : GLOBAL ESSAY [ PART 2 ]

' PEELING Away The Years.'' Scientists devise ways to reverse buildup of compounds associated with aging.

SCIENTISTS have been aware of advanced glycation end products and their role in aging for decades.

'' It accumulates on tissue proteins like rust,'' said John Baynes, a retired biochemist who was not involved in the study but who spent his career researching AGEs at the University of South Carolina Floyd School of Medicine.

But researchers had no success creating drugs to inhibit the chemical reactions that produce AGEs.

The study by Dr. Aaron Cravens and his colleagues began with a hypothesis. Since all human tissue can be recycled into the biosphere after death, there must be a natural way to dissolve these compounds, even though they are extremely durable.

To identify that process, they looked to the enzymes inside microbes, the agents of decomposition.

The team used AI to analyze the DNA sequence of 50,000 microbes and to compute the enzyme structures each genetic code would create. They then narrowed the results to several candidates that seemed capable of cleaving AGEs from human tissue.

They eventually found one and engineered it to be more efficient.

The novel enzyme, called CMLase, became very good at removing AGEs from human tissue samples.  '' In the most extreme case, we took 70-year-old human skin and brought the levels back to that of a 30-year-old,'' Dr. Cravens said.

This Master Essay Class Research Essay continues to Part [3]. !WOW! thanks K.R. Callaway.