A Natural Product Telomerase Activator Lengthens Telomeres in Humans: A Randomized, Double Blind, and Placebo Controlled Study
Laura Salvador 1, Gunasekaran Singaravelu 2, Calvin B. Harley 3, Peter Flom 4, Anitha Suram 2, and Joseph M. Raffaele 5
1 Anti-aging Group Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.
2 T.A. Sciences, Inc., New York, New York.
3 Independent Consultant, Murphys, California.
4 Peter Flom Consulting, New York, New York.
5 PhysioAge Systems, LLC, New York, New York.
Abstract
TA-65 is a dietary supplement based on an improved formulation of a small molecule telomerase activator that was discovered in a systematic screening of natural product extracts from traditional Chinese medicines. This
study summarizes the findings on telomere length (TL) changes from a randomized, double blind, placebo controlled study of TA-65 over a 1 year period. The study was conducted on 117 relatively healthy cytomegalovirus-positive subjects aged 53–87 years old. Subjects taking the low dose of TA-65 (250 U) significantly increased TL over the 12 months period (530 – 180 bp; p = 0.005), whereas subjects in the placebo group significantly lost TL (290 – 100 bp; p = 0.01). The high dose of TA-65 (1000 U) showed a trend of improvements in TL compared with that of the placebo group; however, the improvements did not reach statistical significance. TL changes in the low-dose group were similar for both median and 20th percentile TLs. The findings suggest that TA-65 can lengthen telomeres in a statistically and possibly clinically significant manner.
Keywords
telomere length, TA-65, Astragalus, telomerase, randomized, placebo controlled trial
