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They identified 100 genes out of around 10,000, and kat7 was the most efficient at contributing to senescence in cells, Qu said.

Kat7 is one of tens of thousands of genes found in the cells of mammals. The researchers inactivated it in the livers of the mice using a method called a lentiviral vector.

We just tested the function of the gene in different kinds of cell types, in the human stem cell, the mesenchymal progenitor cells, in the human liver cell and the mouse liver cell and for all of these cells we didnt see any detectable cellular toxicity. And for the mice, we also didnt see any side effect yet.

Despite this, the method is a long way from being ready for human trials, Qu said.

Its still definitely necessary to test the function of kat7 in other cell types of humans and other organs of mice and in the other pre-clinical animals before we use the strategy for human aging or other health conditions, she said.

Qu said she hopes to be able to test the method on primates next, but it would require a lot of funding and much more research first.

In the end, we hope that we can find a way to delay aging even by a very minor percentagein the future.

(Reporting by Martin Quin Pollard; Editing by Kim Coghill)

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Chinese scientists develop new gene therapy that can delay the aging process - National Post

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