Unregulated gene therapy for longevity to launch

An anti-ageing gene therapy not approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is set to be offered by an American company at overseas clinics outside of US jurisdiction.

The treatment, developed by Minicircle from Austin, Texas, uses a nonviral plasmid – a circular DNA sequence that does not change the person's genome – to instruct the body to produce increased levels of klotho, a protein vital in ageing and neurodegeneration. The company has opened a waitlist, and the therapy is set to be available this year to those willing to travel to Honduras, the Bahamas or Panama. It is yet to be tested in rigorous clinical trials, and has not been approved by the FDA or other major regulators.

'If you've got this thing in your body that is continuously producing a protein, maybe in five years' time you'll start to see serious adverse effects,' said Dr Christopher Gyngell, principal research fellow in biomedical ethics at the Department of Paediatrics, University of Melbourne, Australia to the New Scientist. 'People have died in trials of other...