URochester to receive up to $22M for major aging study

The University of Rochester has been awarded up to $22 million in federal funds for a high-impact, collaborative project to study a root cause of aging.

Led by Vera Gorbunova, the Doris Johns Cherry Professor in the Department of Biology and codirector of the Rochester Aging Research Center, the research effort will study whether a drug originally developed to treat HIV helps preserve overall health and function later in life. Scientists will observe if the drug can stop a chronic immune response triggered by the body’s DNA.

The clinical phase of the study will enroll 200 healthy adults ages 60 to 65, who will receive the drug TPN-101 or a placebo for 48 weeks. Researchers will assess mobility, cognition, vitality and other aspects ofintrinsic capacity, a World Health Organization framework.

The study could help pave the way for therapies designed to preserve overall health and function as people grow older, officials say.

“Aging underlies many chronic diseases, but it’s rarely targeted directly. This project builds on the University of Rochester’s long-standing leadership in aging research and gives us a unique opportunity to partner with other leading institutions to address one of the root causes of age-related decline,” says Gorbunova, who also codirects the Upstate NY Comparative Biology of Aging Nathan Shock Center.

One of the drivers for aging could be hidden in DNA, researchers say. When cells treat parts of their genetic material as viral threats, it triggers chronic inflammation that contributes to tissue decline. Gorbunova’s project will study whether this response can be reduced to help older adults stay healthier longer.

The research studies pieces of DNA in cells—retrotransposons—that can copy and insert themselves into new locations in the genome. Typically, these sequences stay quiet, but over the past decade, Gorbunova and her colleagues have found that they become more active as people age.

“When we are young, our cells are good at keeping retrotransposons suppressed,” Gorbunova says. “As we age, that control weakens, and the immune system begins to respond as if the body is under viral attack.”

That persistent response has been linked to a number of age-related diseases, including cancer, diabetes, and neurodegeneration. 

“We have known for years that non-infection related inflammation increases with age and is linked to poor aging outcomes,” says Andrew Brack, ARPA-H program manager and creator of the PROactive Solutions for Prolonging Resilience program. 

The prospect of using anti-retroviral therapies with a history of safety in health populations to extend healthspan is an exciting one, he notes.

“The work being led by Professor Gorbunova is an excellent example of the ways in which large-scale public and private partnerships can address some of the most pressing challenges of human health and well-being,” says Sarah Mangelsdorf, president of URochester.

The five-year contract is funded by the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health, a federal agency created to support biomedical projects that could lead to transformative advances in health, officials say. The URochester team is one of several selected by the agency’s PROSPR program.

Andrei Seluanov from the River Campus, Kathi Heffner from the School of Nursing and codirector of the University’s Resilience Research Center, and Annette Medina-Walpole from the Medical Center will work with Gorbunova. Brown University, University of Connecticut, The University of Texas Medical Branch, University of Texas Health Houston, University of Nebraska, and Transposon Therapeutics are also involved in the research.

“Our hope is that by dialing down retrotransposons, we can help people remain healthier, stronger, and mentally sharper as they age,” Gorbunova says. “That would be a profound shift in how we think about aging and intervention.”

Smriti Jacob is Rochester Beacon managing editor. 

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