Empowered Patient Podcast Developing Combination Therapies Targeting Hallmarks of Aging to Address Multiple Age-Related Diseases with Dr. Ann Beliën Rejuvenate
Dr. Ann Beliën, Chief Executive Officer and Founder at Rejuvenate Biomed, is addressing the underlying biology of aging including mechanisms like mitochondrial health, cell-cell communication and inflammation in order to promote healthy aging. Taking a combination therapy approach, Rejuvenate is using AI-enable drug discovery to address multiple pathways that are involved in aging. Their lead drug candidate is a treatment for sarcopenia with plans to assess impact on other age-related biomarkers.
Ann explains, "The biology of aging indeed is being defined by 12 hallmarks. These 12 hallmarks are pathways where you see that the functioning is deteriorating. One of them is mitochondrial health. So, the mitochondria are there to create energy in your cells to make sure that they work to an optimal base. That’s a very important element that we need to address."
"Another very important one for us is cell-cell communication. So, for instance, in sarcopenia, one of the diseases we study, it’s very important that your muscle continues to be strong and that you don’t lose too much strength during aging. Now, for the muscle to be able to do that, it’s not only important that the muscle has enough energy but that there is also a crosstalk between the neurons that signal to your muscle that it has to contract. So, that cell-cell communication is also very important."
"Within Rejuvenate Biomed, when we develop medication for age-related diseases, we start from the hallmarks of aging. We have an AI-enabled in silico system that can map compounds that have existed for quite a while, for which we have checked if they’re safe for an older population and also for chronic application. That information about these compounds, how they exactly work, goes into our system. The system sees if now these compounds theoretically have the ability to have an impact on the hallmarks of aging. If this is the case, the system will predict a combination that can allow you to impact as many different elements as possible. With that combination, we then check in worms, little worms, so C. elegans, to check on health span."
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