Longevity initiation has given his first patient a drug to correct age-related vision loss.
Life Biosciences is testing its ER-100 drug, which the company claims has restoration of vision in monkeys, with safety and side effects in a study of about 18 adults in the next year.
It will be targeting patients with glaucoma and NAION, two conditions that cause damage to vital cells in the optic nerve, which transmits visual information from the back of the eye to the brain. ER-100 is designed to revive those cells so they can function again and restore vision.
It is the first cell-regeneration therapy using this technology to receive FDA approval to enter human clinical trials, and thus the first opportunity to test whether the technology can “improve human disease,” according to Life Biosciences co-founder David Sinclair, who is also a professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School.
The biology of aging – understanding how cells and body functions deteriorate over time – is on the root of longevity science. ER-100 is a major biotech target for its ability to reverse cellular aging. Life Biosciences, based in Boston, says it is advancing the use of its technology to combat many aging-related diseases in a variety of organs, such as fatty liver disease.
“Our research has suggested that aging is largely driven by the loss of epigenetic information, not irreversible damage. This clinical study represents the first opportunity to test whether restoring that information can improve human disease,” Sinclair said.
