A 32-year-old Princeton medicine graduate is confident that he can reverse the process of aging. According to the 32-year-old competitive rower, he can do this by transfusion of a young person's plasma. To date, he is launching a clinical trial that will investigate the promise of a "young blood" to the aging population.
Jesse Karmazin's Idea
Jesse Karmazin, through the Ambrosia trial, claims that most of the study's participants have witnessed significant progress in a span of 1 month. These participants have all received an $8,000 worth of infusion of 2 litres of plasma. The blood cells of then blood have already been removed.
Controversies
The study has however sparked up a number of controversies. According to many scientists and specialist, Karmazin's study has poor design. It will be unable to give adequate evidence about the effects of transfusion in reversing aging. There were also some allegations that accuse the trial as amounting to as scam--being a pay-top-articipate study that is potentially able to collect total of $4.8 million from 600 participants.
Study Design
The studies design has found its basis on inconclusive science. 10 years ago, there were studies that similarly offered provocative clues that signs of ageing can be accelerated or reversed when old mice is given blood from younger mice. Unfortunately, the results of this studies have provided opposing conclusions and results. The experiments also provide little information on how one-time blood infusions will impact people since the experiments on mice have been completed over four weeks.
Use Of Blood In Previous Researches
The investigation on blood as part of the research in treating diseases has already been explored. Tony Wyss-Coray, neuroscientist from Stanford University, showed evidences that old mice increased neuron growth and improved memory following 10 infusions of blood from young mice in 2014. However, Coray is not convinced of the trial proposed by Karmazin, "People want to believe that young blood restores youth, even though we don't have evidence that it works in humans and we don't understand the mechanism of how mice look younger."
The Ambrosia trial, with its many controversies, sparks a question of risk to health. Blood transfusions have proven generally safe in people however it can still pose dangerous side effects such as lung injury, hives and even infections which can lead to death.
