Key Points:
- A blood plasma protein blend from young donors modulated a cellular immune response and facilitated lower inflammatory signaling after surgery in elderly patients.
- Although not statistically significant, the plasma protein blend from young donors conferred trends toward lowering the need for pain medications and reducing fatigue after surgery.
Published in the Journal of Translational Medicine, Angst and colleagues from the Stanford University School of Medicine present findings that blood plasma proteins from young donors modify blood proteins associated with inflammation in elderly adults after joint replacement surgery. Moreover, treating these elderly individuals with a proprietary blend of young plasma proteins (a proprietary plasma protein concoction called GRF6021) lowered inflammatory proteins at the cellular level in immune cells. Furthermore, the young plasma treatments conferred statistical trends toward reducing the need for pain medications and lowering fatigue following surgery. These findings provide a well-founded rationale for further research to uncover components within young plasma that may counteract aging and support the notion of infusing from young donors for physiological rejuvenation.
“Reported findings provide a first proof of principle in humans that a young plasma protein fraction actively regulates inflammatory and immune responses in an elderly population,” said Angst and colleagues in their publication.
Infusing a Proprietary Blend of Young Plasma Proteins Lowers Inflammation After Surgery in Elderly Adults
Angst and colleagues’ findings present some of the first evidence that young plasma has effects that work against aging in humans. In their study, the Stanford-based researchers found that the GRF6021 plasma protein blend from young donors (with an average age of 35) lowered inflammatory protein levels to dampen inflammatory signaling in immune cells. Some researchers believe that inflammation contributes to aging, so alleviating inflammation with a young plasma protein blend may counteract this aspect of aging.
Interestingly, the aging guru Bryan Johnson, who practices an array of techniques to optimize his youthfulness, has injected blood plasma (likely containing a different plasma blend than GRF6021) from his young son. People using this procedure, however, received a cautionary advisory from the FDA in 2019, warning against the practice since it did not have proven safety or efficacy. In this light, the current findings from this Stanford study may stimulate renewed interest and engagement in young plasma infusions for older adults.
The Young Plasma Protein Blend Modulates Inflammatory and Immune Responses
For their study, Angst and colleagues evaluated 36 patients who underwent hip and knee joint replacement surgery. Half of the patients received an infusion of the young plasma protein blend, and the other half received saline. The treatments were administered one day before surgery, the day of surgery before the procedure, the day of surgery after the procedure, and the day following surgery.
Angst and colleagues performed a statistical analysis of proteins present in the blood to examine whether the young plasma protein treatments modulated inflammatory and immune responses. The statistical analysis revealed that following surgery, the young plasma treatment modulated proteins involved in inflammatory and immune responses, such as those associated with certain inflammatory pathways. These findings support that certain factors in young plasma affect inflammatory and immune responses.
For a more precise picture of how certain factors in young donor plasma modulate inflammatory and immune responses, Angst and colleagues analyzed changes in single immune cells. The Stanford researchers uncovered that on the day of surgery, after the procedure, and one day after surgery, the young plasma protein blend facilitated differences in inflammatory proteins in the immune cells. These findings corroborated the results suggesting that the young plasma protein blend modulated immune and inflammatory proteins.
To confirm that the young plasma treatment suppressed inflammation in immune cells, Angst and colleagues ran another statistical analysis on a protein (pERK) that triggers a cascade of events leading to inflammation. This protein’s signaling was significantly lower in patients who received the young plasma protein blend treatment after surgery. This finding supports that the young plasma protein blend suppresses inflammation in immune cells.
To pinpoint what type of immune cells showed lowered inflammatory responses with young plasma protein blend treatment, Angst and colleagues measured levels of proteins associated with an inflammatory pathway—JAK-STAT. The immune cells of interest were either involved in the adaptive immune responses where the immune system forms a memory of pathogens or the initial innate immune response. The researchers found that one day after the surgery, the young plasma protein blend treatments lowered proteins of this inflammatory pathway in immune cells involved in the adaptive immune response. These data suggest that factors present in the young plasma protein blend alleviate inflammation in cells with roles in the adaptive immune response, which have been tied to low-grade, sterile inflammation associated with cardiovascular aging.
To figure out whether the young plasma protein blend improved recovery after surgery, Angst and colleagues measured the dosages of pain medications used and levels of fatigue. They found that while not statistically significant, patients who received young plasma protein blend treatments showed trends toward requiring less pain medicine and having less fatigue after surgery. These data align with previous research associating inflammation with pain and fatigue. Thus, certain factors in the young plasma protein blend dampen immune cell inflammatory pathways, which may drive this trend toward lower pain and fatigue following surgery.
“The administration of the young plasma protein blend resulted in significant signaling pathway- and cell type-specific anti-inflammatory immune modulation,” said Angst and colleagues. “To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study in humans providing evidence that components in young plasma possess immune-modulating properties in an elderly population.”
Parsing Out Which Factors in Young Plasma Alleviate Inflammation in the Elderly Following Surgical Injury
The data from this study suggest that certain undefined factors in the young plasma protein blend alleviate inflammation in immune cells associated with the adaptive immune response—immune reactions that form a memory of pathogens. Future research should attempt to identify which factors in young plasma protein blends contribute to lowered inflammation. Identifying such factors may help in developing targeted therapies that include these specific factors and eliminate the need for plasma donations from younger individuals.
Furthermore, some researchers believe that the key mechanism by which transfusions with young plasma rejuvenate older organisms, such as mice, is by diluting blood factors that contribute to aging. While some blood factors like ꞵ2-microglobulin may promote aging, other blood factors like apelin promote physiological rejuvenation. As such, therapeutic approaches like the one from Angst and colleagues may increase the abundance of rejuvenating blood factors. All the same, other strategies aimed at diluting aging factors in the blood, like therapeutic plasma exchange, could work to rejuvenate tissues and organs as well.
If future studies corroborate the findings from Angst and colleagues, the FDA may approve procedures using young plasma protein blends for transfusions into older adults to counteract aging. Moreover, techniques for the dilution of pro-aging blood factors could get FDA approval if procedures like therapeutic plasma exchange, which works to replace some plasma with fresh saline, show efficacy in rejuvenating organs. In that sense, if data come to light that shows that factors from young plasma and diluting blood plasma in aged individuals confer effects against aging, researchers will then need to address how often each procedure should be done for optimal aging.
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