Skip to content
Back to glossary
Therapeutics

Gene therapy (in longevity context)

DEGentherapie (im Longevity-Kontext)

Gene therapy delivers genetic material to add, silence, or edit your genes. It usually uses AAV viral vectors for stable, long-term gene expression. Or it uses lipid nanoparticles for temporary delivery (like mRNA or gene-editing components). In longevity, the popular targets include telomerase (TERT), follistatin, Klotho, and partial reprogramming via OSK. OSK is three Yamanaka factors: Oct4, Sox2, and Klf4. (They leave out c-Myc to lower cancer risk.) The rodent data are strong for some of these. But human use is still pre-clinical. Some runs as small offshore or pay-to-play programs outside FDA oversight (like BioViva and Libella). The risks are real: immune reactions, cancer, and off-target edits. No anti-aging gene therapy is approved.

Last reviewed:

This definition is educational and is not medical advice, a diagnosis, or treatment. Talk to a doctor about any health decisions. Read our full medical disclaimer

Sources

  1. Yu C, Li J, Sun Y, Pan X, Liu J, Hou L. (2023). Gene therapy strategies targeting aging-related diseases. *Aging and Disease*doi:10.14336/ad.2022.00725
  2. López-Otín C, Blasco MA, Partridge L et al.. (2023). Hallmarks of Aging: An Expanding Universe. *Cell*doi:10.1016/j.cell.2022.11.001