New drug may extend women's fertility by six years
A drug that extends egg viability in worms and could theoretically extend women's fertility by three to six years has been identified by scientists, said a report. "As early as the mid-30s, women start to experience declines in fertility, increased rates of miscarriage and maternal age-related birth defects," said Coleen Murphy from the Princeton University in the US. Here's more.
All problems caused due to declining egg quality
Murphy said, "All of these problems are thought to be caused by declining egg quality, rather than a lack of eggs." The researchers used a microscopic worm, Caenorhabditis elegans (C elegans), to study longevity. The study investigated downregulated group of proteins, cathepsin B proteases, that are rare in high-quality eggs and more common in eggs that have begun degrading with age.
Earlier another experiment succeeded in extending worms fertility
The existence of drugs that block these exact proteins provided an opportunity to test their effects. Another experiment that knocked out the cathepsin B genes entirely succeeded in extending worms fertility by about 10 percent. "If applied to humans, it could be a three- to a six-year extension of your reproductive period," said Nicole Templeman from Princeton University.
