{"id":58094,"date":"2017-03-28T14:35:45","date_gmt":"2017-03-29T00:35:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=58094"},"modified":"2020-03-13T15:32:23","modified_gmt":"2020-03-14T01:32:23","slug":"astaxanthin-therapy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2017\/03\/28\/astaxanthin-therapy\/","title":{"rendered":"Promising anti-aging gene therapy developed through innovative partnership"},"content":{"rendered":"<span class=\"span-reading-time rt-reading-time\" style=\"display: block;\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\">Reading time: <\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\"> 2<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">minutes<\/span><\/span><div class=\"responsive-video-wrap\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"620\" height=\"349\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/z543dSBODFU?showinfo=0\" title=\"Youtube video player\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>Promising anti-aging results have been shown by a study of the compound Astaxanthin by researchers at the University of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Hawai&#699;i<\/span> <a href=\"http:\/\/jabsom.hawaii.edu\/\">John A. Burns School of Medicine<\/a> in partnership with the life sciences company <a href=\"https:\/\/cardaxpharma.com\/\">Cardax Inc<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The Astaxanthin compound <abbr>CDX-085<\/abbr>, developed by Cardax, showed the ability to significantly increase the expression of the <abbr title=\"Forkhead box protein 03\">FOXO3<\/abbr> gene, which plays a proven role in longevity.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;All of us have the <abbr>FOXO3<\/abbr> gene, which protects against aging in humans,&rdquo; said <strong>Bradley Willcox<\/strong>, professor and director of research at the <a href=\"https:\/\/jabsom.hawaii.edu\/departments\/geriatrics\/\">Department of Geriatric Medicine<\/a>, <abbr title=\"John A. Burns School of Medicine\">JABSOM<\/abbr>, and principal investigator of the National Institutes of Health-funded Kuakini <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Hawai&#699;i<\/span> Lifespan and Healthspan Studies. &ldquo;But about one in three persons carry a version of the <abbr>FOXO3<\/abbr> gene that is associated with longevity. By activating the <abbr>FOXO3<\/abbr> gene common in all humans, we can make it act like the &lsquo;longevity&rsquo; version. Through this research, we have shown that Astaxanthin &lsquo;activates&rsquo; the <abbr>FOXO3<\/abbr> gene,&rdquo; said Willcox.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_58095\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-58095\" style=\"width: 260px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/manoa-jabsom-allsopp-r.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/manoa-jabsom-allsopp-r-260x173.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"260\" height=\"173\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-58095\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/manoa-jabsom-allsopp-r-260x173.jpg 260w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/manoa-jabsom-allsopp-r.jpg 620w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 260px) 100vw, 260px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-58095\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Richard Allsopp in his lab<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&ldquo;This preliminary study was the first of its kind to test the potential of Astaxanthin to activate the <abbr>FOXO3<\/abbr> gene in mammals,&rdquo; said <strong>Richard Allsopp<\/strong>, associate professor, and researcher with the <abbr>JABSOM<\/abbr> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ibr.hawaii.edu\/\"> Institute of Biogenesis Research<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>In the study, mice were fed either normal food or food containing a low or high dose of the Astaxanthin compound <abbr>CDX-085<\/abbr> provided by Cardax. The animals that were fed the higher amount of the Astaxanthin compound experienced a significant increase in the activation of the <abbr>FOXO3<\/abbr> gene in their heart tissue. <\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;We found a nearly 90 percent increase in the activation of the <abbr>FOXO3<\/abbr> &lsquo;Longevity Gene&rsquo; in the mice fed the higher dose of the Astaxanthin compound <abbr>CDX-085<\/abbr>,&rdquo; said Allsopp.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;This groundbreaking University of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Hawai&#699;i<\/span> research further supports the critical role of Astaxanthin in health and why the healthcare community is embracing its use,&rdquo; said David G. Watumull, Cardax <abbr title=\"Chief Executive Officer\">CEO<\/abbr>. &ldquo;We look forward to further confirmation in human clinical trials of Astaxanthin&#8217;s role in aging.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;We are extremely proud of our collaborative efforts with Cardax on this very promising research that may help mitigate the effects of aging in humans,&rdquo; said <abbr>ÌÇÐÄVlog¹Ù·½<\/abbr> Vice President of Research <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/leadership\/vassilis-syrmos\/\">Vassilis L. Syrmos<\/a><\/strong>. &ldquo;This is a great example of what the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/innovation\/\"><span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Hawai&#699;i<\/span> Innovation Initiative<\/a> is all about&#8212;when the private sector and government join forces to build a thriving innovation, research, education and job training enterprise to help diversify the state&#8217;s economy.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Read more about the <a href=\"http:\/\/jabsom.hawaii.edu\/research-university-of-hawaii-reports-ability-of-astaxanthin-to-significantly-activate-fox03-longevity-gene-in-mammals\/\">research at the <abbr>JABSOM<\/abbr> website<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/uhmed\/sets\/72157680219931190\/with\/33324981480\/\">See more images from the <abbr>JABSOM<\/abbr>-Cardax press conference<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><em>&#8212;By Tina Shelton<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Research by the <abbr title=\"University of Hawaii\">ÌÇÐÄVlog¹Ù·½<\/abbr> medical school found a compound developed by Cardax Inc. can increase the expression of a gene that plays a role in longevity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[971,165,454,31,9],"class_list":["post-58094","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research","tag-geriatric-medicine","tag-health","tag-institute-for-biogenesis-research","tag-john-a-burns-school-of-medicine","tag-uh-manoa","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58094","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58094"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58094\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":113738,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58094\/revisions\/113738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}