Also, I just wanted to add this interesting note from a recent interview with Tony Wyss-Coray at Stanford U.:
Q. But it has been seen that young blood rejuvenates organs.
A. There was a study led by Tom Rando [researcher at Stanford University] that showed that young blood rejuvenates muscle stem cells. When you’re old, muscles stop regenerating because those stem cells stop doing their job. This experiment demonstrated in mice that young blood reactivates muscle stem cells. It also has an effect on other tissues, such as hematopoietic cells, which make up the immune system. We saw something similar in the brain. The other interesting observation is that with age there is an increase in inflammation throughout the body, and young blood also seems to reduce inflammation.
Q. Why?
A. We don’t know. I don’t think it’s through stem cells, but rather an active effect of blood proteins. We also know that removing plasma from an older individual is beneficial, because the body probably accumulates toxic factors over time.
Q. You and other groups are testing these effects in Alzheimer’s patients. What has been observed so far?
A. What people have tried is to remove plasma from old people and then give them young plasma**.** This same procedure, apheresis, is used in cases in which we are not clear what disease the patient has, for example autoimmune diseases, or also chronic fatigue syndrome. That seems to be beneficial.
Q. What results were seen in Alzheimer’s?
A. Grifols did a phase 2-3 trial several years ago. It showed clear benefits for patients. The ones we did with the company I co-founded, Alkahest, were not as compelling due to the small number of patients; but those from Grifols, with a double-blind and controlled trial, showed clear improvement. But no progress has been made.
Q. Why?
A. Because Grifols doesn’t have money. They had a lot of problems during the pandemic and then applied for a lot of cheap loans from the European Union and banks. Interest rates went up and now they have a lot of debt. They have also been accused of poor business practices. They don’t have money to continue with trials. Another major problem is that they couldn’t make money from this. Grifols is dedicated to selling plasma and it is a relatively cheap product. How could they charge five times more for giving it to people with Alzheimer’s?
…
Q. Even if this were to be transformed into a treatment, you say that it would likely be impossible to carry it out, why?
A. Because benefits have been seen not only in people with Alzheimer’s, but also other diseases. Sarcopenia [muscle loss], heart ailments. Millions of people could be treated with plasma and it would be beneficial. The problem here is that there wouldn’t be enough plasma to treat everyone. There are rich people who pay for plasma transfusions, and they have been doing so long before all this was known.
Q. Are these treatments reliable?
A. No. It probably has some benefit, but there are only anecdotal cases of improvement in general health and also in cognition. In fact, this is how Alkahest was founded. The funds were provided by a wealthy Hong Kong family. The head of the family had Alzheimer’s. He received a transfusion because he also had cancer. His grandson realized that every time his grandfather had a transfusion his memory returned and he could talk to him again. He was the one who provided the funds. [The founder was Chen Din Hwa, a billionaire of Chinese origin, who died in 2012. After seeing the extraordinary effects of the transfusions, his relatives provided the funds to create Alkahest. The company was acquired by Grifols in 2020].
Q. Is there any other way to unblock this situation?
A. Hopefully, but it is very complex. There are tens of thousands of proteins in plasma, and among them there are hundreds of thousands of different variants. We don’t know which ones we need. Here we return to the problem of the natural fountain of youth. It is possible that the rejuvenating proteins we have in our blood are in a different conformation than if we synthesized them in the laboratory. Animal experiments would have to be done for each one, but it is an enormous and very expensive challenge; we are talking about about 10,000 molecules. There are now many companies focused on identifying some of these rejuvenating factors.
