LUNGS: Gene Therapy

Whilst ageing is a universal process, there is complexity below the surface. Even though animal models suggest that intervening with ageing has had a positive impact on the healthy lifespan of the animals, we are still not able to guarantee the same effects on humans. Biosynthage wanted to make sure that even though we are proposing novel synthetic biology products to solve a real world problem, that we are still addressing the negative issues that our products also raise. Therefore, it was even more important that we have incorporated safety into the design of each idea.

After designing our SOD3 system, we wanted to find out what the experts in the ageing field think of our ideas We talked to William Bains, who is an ageing researcher and knows a lot about emerging therapies within the field. He told us that he thought that the gene therapy was a good idea, rapid and interesting. We also discussed that research indicates that oxidative stress is actually good for the body, and that we neede to conside this in our design. William bains suggested that it would be a good idea to titrate our system in a way in which SOD3 is only released when it senses high levels of oxidative stress. Therefore, in the future we would change the design such that our system will be activated by nfkb induced promotor. Nfkb is a transcription factor that is only released when it senses reactive oxidative species.

It is possible that we could add more nfkb binding sites to the existing promotor in the registry made by a previous 14_ATOMS-Turkiye team such that high levels of nfkb are required to release SOD3. This would make our gene therapy safer for the body, and more controlled.

Why did we chose to do gene therapy

There has been attempts of making an oral supplement with pure SOD enzyme to act as an ageing therapy, but it's been found that the SOD protein molecule is easily deactivated by harsh acids and enzymes contained in the digestive tract. No-one has yet made a SOD gene therapy. Also the lungs is highly susceptible to oxidative stress hence we combined the two ideas for a novel approach.