Slowing aging: Psilocybin helps extend life span in human cells by over 50%

Medical News Today

2 days ago

Psilocybin is a chemical that is found in a wide variety of mushrooms known for their euphoric and hallucinogenic effects. Over the past few years, there have been a number of studies investigating the use of psilocybin for the treatment of mental health disorders and medical conditions. A new study says psilocybin may help delay aging by increasing the cellular life span of human skin and lung cells by more than 50%. Scientists also reported evidence psilocybin may help protect the body from age-related diseases through several health-protecting qualities, via a mouse model.Psilocybin is a chemical that is found in a wide variety of mushrooms. Also known as 'shrooms' and 'magic mushrooms,' psilocybin is known for its euphoric and hallucinogenic effects. Over the past few years, there have been a number of studies investigating the use of psilocybin for the treatment of mental health disorders such as treatment-resistant depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and substance use disorders, as well as medical conditions like migraine, Alzheimer's disease, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), and Parkinson's disease. 'The overwhelming majority of what we know about psilocybin is from clinical outcomes (with >150 clinical trials ongoing or completed) and impacts on the brain,' Louise Hecker, PhD, associate professor at Baylor College of Medicine, told Medical News Today. 'Psilocybin is well known for its hallucinogenic properties. However, we know very little about what it does otherwise, particularly its impact systemically on the rest of the body.'Hecker is the senior author of a new study recently published in the journal npj Aging that has found indication that psilocybin may help delay aging by increasing the cellular lifespan of human skin and lung cells by more than 50%. Scientists also reported evidence psilocybin may help protect the body from age-related diseases, such as neurodegeneration, heart disease, and cancer through several health-protecting qualities, via a mouse model.Psilocybin helps extend life in cells by over 50%For this study, researchers first used a cellular aging model of human lung cells to see how psilocin — the active ingredient in mushrooms that causes hallucinogenic effects — would impact them. Scientists reported that psilocin helped to extend the cellular lifespan of human skin and lung cells by more than 50%.'The significance is that psilocin-treated cells do age, however they age at a slower rate, while maintaining the properties of 'young' cells longer,' Hecker, who was an associate professor at Emory University at the time of the study, said. When moving to a mouse model, Hecker and her team also discovered that mice at the equivalent of 60-65 human years given psilocybin lived longer than those who did not receive it. Additionally, these mice displayed healthier features, such as fewer white hairs and hair regrowth.'We designed this experiment with the clinical relevance in mind — wouldn't it be great if we could give an intervention to elderly adults that helps them to live healthier longer?,' Hecker explained. 'Our study suggests that this is possible.'Psilocybin helps maintain telomere length, helping with agingAccording to researchers, their findings suggest that psilocybin assists with slowing aging by reducing oxidative stress, improving DNA repair responses, and maintaining the length of telomeres. Telomeres are the 'end caps' of chromosomes. By helping to preserve telomere lengths, the researchers believe this may help protect the body from age-related diseases like heart disease, neurodegeneration, and cancer. 'Psilocybin appears to reduce the 'wear and tear' that accompanies aging. Although psilocybin is well-known for its psychedelic effects, our study suggests that psilocybin has potent impacts on the entire body. Psilocybin holds great potential for promoting healthy aging — this is just the starting point, as much more research is needed.'— Louise Hecker, PhD'We need to better understand its mechanisms of action, in particular how it works outside the brain to impact systemic aging and other processes,' Hecker said. 'More research is needed to optimize dosing/frequency protocols as well as monitor for the potential of adverse effects before it is ready to be used clinically as an anti-aging agent.'More studies needed to translate findings to humansMNT spoke with Jack Jacoub, MD, a board certified medical oncologist and medical director of MemorialCare Cancer Institute at Orange Coast and Saddleback Medical Centers in Orange County, CA, about this study. 'Cell aging is a key feature to overall health and illnesses and cancer,' Jacoub said. 'And so there's a lot of therapies now that are looking at things like senescence, which is normal cell aging, how to slow it down, and how to repair the damage that happens with aging. Sometimes issues related to cancer are due to the inability to repair damage, and it becomes a cancerous cell.' Jacoub commented that while this was a very interesting and notable observational study, it's a big leap right now to say these findings will translate to human illnesses, including cancer. 'It's too general right now to say anti-aging — that's an incredible umbrella. For it to really make an impact, and for you to see it available and recommended, it's going to need to be advanced further, obviously in humans, but then in particular areas to be able to say, yes, there really is merit to this, we should be recommending this to patients, etc.' — Jack Jacoub, MD'Like for example, could it help repair injury quickly?,' Jacoub continued. 'That would be (an) interesting thing to observe and study. And so let's say it's stroke patients, heart attack patients, whatever it might be — is there some role there to use it and accelerate healing from events like that? (And) a good one would be cellular repair. Can you recover and heal faster if you took this? That would be an example of it.'