Hormone discovery may delay ageing

Press, 9 June 1980, Page 18

Hormone discovery may delay ageing

By

NIGEL HAWKES

in London

A hormone that can be used to treat virus infections and cancer, and might even be able to slow down ageing; is causing a stir among biologists and drug houses. The hormone is secreted by the thymus gland,. an organ about which little was known until comparatively recently. Work during the last 20 years has shown that the thymus plays a vital' role in

the process by which the body recognises and rejects foreign substances, including bacteria and viruses. Samples of- the hormone' extracted from animal thymuses have shown some dramatic successes in treating viral infections in children. It seems to be able to stimulate the body’s defensive system, ■ and may- be useful in ' restoring the defences of ’ cancer patients

being treated with other drugs. Such patients are vulnerable to secondary infections because their immune systems are sup--pressed by the action of the anti-cancer drugs. The hormone is called Thymic Humoral Factor (T.H.F.) and its potential impact has been compared by some with that of the much more highly publicised interferon. If it lives up to expectations it could become

a very important drug in the 1980 s. Speculation about the hormone' includes the possibility that it could be used to defer ageing, which according to some theories comes about because the body loses its ability to distinguish between its own cells and those of foreign substances. That leads to the onset of age-related diseases such as arthritis, diabetes and hardening of the arteries. T.H.F. has been tried in animals and in a group of children being treated for

leukaemia. When mice had their thymus glands removed immediately after birth, and which would normally make them prey to a multitude of infections. T.H.F. restored their ability to reject tumour cells. In the children, T.H.F. was not used to counter the cancer, which was being treated conventionally by chemotherapy, but to restore the patients’ ability to shrug off secondary infections. Many children being treated with anti-leukaemia drugs contract chicken pox,

not once but several times; and that infection, relatively harmless in normal children, can in those patients lead to lung complications and death. T.H.F. extracted from calf, pig and sheep thymus glands has been used to treat 50 of those children in several hospitals in Israel, with very good results. Whether T.H.F. has any effect on the cancer is not clear, but it does improve the children’s resistance to other infections. Copyright, London Observer Service.