Pondering Young Blood For Brain Rejuvenation with Tony Wyss-Coray

In 2011 and 2014 Tony Wyss-Coray and his lab members published high-profile papers in which they used a procedure called parabiosis and blood transfusions to show that blood plasma from young animals can rejuvenate the brains of old mice and vice-versa. Moreover, they found that young plasma restores cognitive function in a mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease. Since then many other labs have confirmed this remarkable phenomena and Wyss-Coray and others have been working to identify the ‘rejuvenating factor’ or factors in young plasma. A recent preliminary clinical trial in which patients with Alzheimer’s were infused with plasma from young people generated promising results.  Here I talk with Tony about this exciting area of research.

Links: 

Professor Wyss-Coray lab page:

http://web.stanford.edu/group/twclab/cgi-bin/

Key publications:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3170097/pdf/nihms313001.pdf

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4224436/pdf/nihms632757.pdf

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5586222/pdf/nihms901457.pdf

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9387403/pdf/nihms-1827565.pdf