US-based Jesse Karmazin, a physician, researcher, former paralympic rower, who runs a startup called Ambrosia (literally meaning drink of the gods), has launched a clinical trial of infusing the blood plasma of young people into older people to study whether there are anti-aging benefits. It's a pay-to-participate trial.
Also read: Drinking red wine can lower the short-term effects of cigarette smoking: Study
Karmazin's company, Ambrosia in Monterey, California, plans to charge participants $8000 for lab tests and a one-time treatment with young plasma. The volunteers don't have to be sick or even particularly aged—the trial is open to anyone 35 and older. The transfusion is open to anyone who pays the 8,000. The aim of the research is to study the effect of young plasma on 100 biomarkers.
Karmazin has said that most participants "see improvements" after a one-time infusion of a two-litre bagful of plasma. However, many scientists and clinicians have slammed the clinical trial, saying that it is poorly designed. Many have said that the trial is an outright scam, since the pay-to-participate study has the potential to rake in $4.8 million from 600 participants.
Karmazin's precedent for starting the trials is earlier trials on mice, where they were infused with plasma of younger mice over a period of time instead of an one-time infusion.
In 2013, a paper in a journal called, Cell, said that while a component in young blood, GDF11 increased muscle strength, other researchers were unable to replicate it.
"In our study, circulation between the young and old mouse was maintained for nearly four weeks," says Amy Wagers, a professor of regenerative biology at Harvard University and an author of the Cell report.
"I think the animal and retrospective data is compelling, and I want this treatment to be available to people," he told the Business Insider.
Karmazin is working with David C. Wright, a 66-year-old physician at a private intravenous-therapy center in Monterey. Wright was disciplined in January 2015 for administering antibiotic infusions into a patient who didn't need it and later ended up in an emergency room.
Karmazin however says that Wright has infused 25 people with young blood so far and some of them have had "miraculous results." One of the patients with chronic fatigue syndrome reportedly felt healthy and looks younger.
"There are a lot of patient-funded trials run by companies that use the trials as a way to sell products that wouldn't be marketable because they'd have to be regulated by the FDA," says Jonathan Kimmelman, a bioethicist at McGill University in Montreal.
On social media, many have criticised the study as capitalism gone wrong since it encourages young people to get paid to sell their plasma.
