Ira Pastor, ideaXme life sciences ambassador and founder of Bioquark, interviews Dr. Michael B. Fossel, M.D., Ph.D., Founder and President of Telocyte.
Ira Pastor comments:
Today, we are going to journey back to the topic of Alzheimer’s disease, which as we’ve discussed on previous episodes, is one of those conditions, that while not responsible for as many annual deaths as cancer or heart disease, is a problem that is growing substantially in our rapidly aging population, and is predicted to become an epidemic of major proportions (with both direct and indirect costs to society) in the coming decades.
Alzheimer’s Disease
Estimates vary, but experts suggest that more than 5.5 million Americans, most of them age 65 or older, may have dementia caused by Alzheimer’s, with an estimated 18 million elderly people afflicted worldwide. This burden is projected to grow to 14 million in the U.S. in 2060 and over 100 million globally.
It is truly a disease of “substantial unmet medical need.”
Therapies For Alzheimer’s Disease?
There is no cure for Alzheimer’s disease; available treatments offer relatively small symptomatic benefit and remain palliative in nature.
The predominant area of clinical research, which is focused on treating what has been thought to be the primary underlying disease pathology, beta-amyloid plaque formation, and hence its attempted reduction via traditional drugs, scavenging by immunotherapies, etc., have been using up billions in research funding and have yielded lacklustre results to date – so much so that many members of big pharma are getting out of the Alzheimer’s therapeutics space entirely.
This has prompted a set of thought leaders to ask the big question: is b-amyloid even the right target? Or is it (and related Tau neurofibrillary tangles or damage) far downstream from much more important biological events that we should be paying more attention to?
On a few previous episodes we’ve touched on some of these themes – we’ve talked about the infectious dimension of Alzheimer’s and dementia (in regards to work on chronic herpes infection); we’ve talked with folks that look at Alzheimer’s as a new form of diabetes and more from an endocrine angle.
Dr. Michael B. Fossel, founder of Telocyte
We have a fascinating guest today.
Dr. Michael B. Fossel, M.D., Ph.D., is Founder and President of Telocyte, who has recently published a fascinating review in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Association entitled “A Unified Model of Dementias and Age‐Related Neurodegeneration,” which focuses on the theme of a failing class of brain cells becoming senescent (entering a state of irreversible cell cycle arrest), called glia (non-neuronal cells in the central nervous system that maintain homeostasis, and provide support and protection for neurons) as a major driver of Alzheimer’s and other dementias, and is working on an innovative gene therapy that could target these cells to keep dementia at bay.
Dr. Fossel was most recently professor of clinical medicine at Michigan State University and is a respected lecturer, author, and the founder and former editor-in-chief of the Journal of Anti-Aging Medicine (now known as Rejuvenation Research).
Dr. Fossel earned his M.D. at Stanford Medical School, and a Ph.D. in neurobiology at Stanford University. In addition to his position at Michigan State University, Dr. Fossel has lectured at the National Institute for Health, the Smithsonian Institution, and at various other universities and institutes in various parts of the world.
Dr. Fossel served on the board of directors for the American Aging Association and was their executive director.
Dr. Fossel has written numerous articles on aging and ethics as well as authored and co-authored several books including – The Telomerase Revolution, The Immortality Edge, Reversing Human Aging, and Cells, Aging, and Human Disease.
On today’s show we will hear from Dr. Fossel:
About his background, how he became interested in medicine, in aging, and in the neurobiology of Alzheimer’s. An overview of Glial cells as an important target in the pathology of Alzheimer’s. A history of telomeres and telomerase in the areas of cellular aging and cancer and relevance towards Alzheimer’s disease progression. Next steps in the development of Telocyte and it’s gene therapy candidate(s) for Alzheimer’s and other aging pathologies.
Follow Ira Pastor on Twitter: @IraSamuelPastor
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Great interview Ira
Love the interview! The fact you mentioned B.Weinstein’s paper and that Michael gave a little advice to Bill Andrews at the very end.