Your shopping cart is empty!
Calvin B. Harley,1,6Weimin Liu,2Maria Blasco,3Elsa Vera,3William H. Andrews,4Laura A. Briggs,4and Joseph M. Raffaele
Most human cells lack sufficient telomerase to maintain telomeres, hence these genetic elements shorten withtime and stress, contributing to aging and disease. In January, 2007, a commercial health maintenance program,PattonProtocol-1, was launched that included a natural product-derived telomerase activator (TA-65®, 10–50 mgdaily), a comprehensive dietary supplement pack, and physician counseling/laboratory tests at baseline andevery 3–6 months thereafter. We report here analysis of the first year of data focusing on the immune system.Low nanomolar levels of TA-65® moderately activated telomerase in human keratinocytes, fibroblasts, andimmune cells in culture; similar plasma levels of TA-65® were achieved in pilot human pharmacokinetic studieswith single 10- to 50-mg doses. The most strikingin vivoeffects were declines in the percent senescent cytotoxic(CD8+/CD28-) T cells (1.5, 4.4, 8.6, and 7.5% at 3, 6, 9, and 12 months, respectively; p = not significant [N.S.],0.018, 0.0024, 0.0062) and natural killer cells at 6 and 12 months (p=0.028 and 0.00013, respectively). Most ofthese decreases were seen in cytomegalovirus (CMV) seropositive subjects. In a subset of subjects, the distri-bution of telomere lengths in leukocytes at baseline and 12 months was measured. Although mean telomerelength did not increase, there was a significant reduction in the percent short (<4 kbp) telomeres (p=0.037). Noadverse events were attributed to PattonProtocol-1. We conclude that the protocol lengthens critically shorttelomeres and remodels the relative proportions of circulating leukocytes of CMVþsubjects toward the more‘‘youthful’’ profile of CMV- subjects. Controlled randomized trials are planned to assess TA-65® specific effectsin humans.
People take dietary supplementswith the intent topreserve mental, physical, and emotional health andvigor into old age. Although drugs and surgical proceduresthat target diseases of the elderly will hopefully arrest orpartially reverse tissue damage caused by aging and chronicstress, measures to maintain health are arguably a betterapproach to lengthening our healthy life span. Most dietarysupplement programs include combinations of vitamins,antioxidants, and other constituents, some of which havebeen shown to have significant health benefits in controlledclinical studies, whereas others may show adverse effects,1–6underscoring the need to assess functional effects of combi-nation products. This paper presents initial data from an ongoing observational study of a novel dietary supplementprogram, PattonProtocol-1, which includes a natural prod-uct-derived telomerase activator targeting a fundamentalaspect of cellular aging.Telomerase is an enzyme that synthesizes the specificDNA sequence at telomeres, i.e., the terminal DNA at theends of all chromosomes.7,8 Telomeres are essential geneticelements responsible for protecting chromosome ends frombeing recognized as ‘‘broken DNA.’’ Because telomericDNA cannot be fully replicated by conventional DNApolymerases, and because telomeres undergo degradativeprocessing and are a ‘‘hotspot’’ for oxidative damage,9telomeres will gradually shorten with time and cell divisionunless there is sufficient telomerase activity to maintaintelomere length.