You raise a very very interesting point with regard to PHAS telomerase activation and telomere enlongation. It seems we have been in a 2-year period where the only telomerase activators that were thought about were the astragalus-based substances TA-65, astragaloside IV, cycloastragenol, etc. Now we are in a new period where:

a. there is a growing realization that really old-fashioned stuff like vitamin D, vitamin E, fish oils, resveratrol and even vitamin C have an effect in increasing telomere lengths as shown by population studies (see my blog post http://anti-agingfirewalls.com/2010/01/22/vitamins-supplements-and-telomerase-%e2%80%93-upregulation-or-downregulation/

b. With Geron having been issued a patent on astragaloside IV and cycloastragenol, Revgenetics is no longer supplying those products and they might become very expensive.

c. Given two years with still no clinical studies showing how well TA65 works, my doubts about how well the stuff really works actually to extend telomeres are increasing.

d. New substances are coming to the fore showing telomerase activation properties like PHAS.

I have to go to lunch now but will post more on your comments later today. These are interesting telomerase times!

Vince

“is smaller than” 0.05). We then again evaluated the effect of PHAS on telomerase activity. Our data suggested that PHAS could up-regulate telomerase activity in PHAS-fed groups. Telomerase activity were shown in Fig. 3C. It revealed that PHAS-fed groups had higher than those in the controls and d-gal model groups. PHAS-fed group of different concentrations led to resulted in the significant increment of the telomerase activity.”

And I see that the authors actually wanted to make another article about it titled: “Antiaging effect of purslane herb aqueous extracts and its mechanism of action”. But that was retracted because I assume it was almost a duplicate of the previous one.
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/122323293/abstract?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0

“The retraction has been agreed due to overlap with the following article: Zhang Hongxing, Yu Nancai, Huang Guofu, Shao Jianbo, Wu Yanxia, Huang Hanju, Liu Qian, Ma Wei, Yi Yandong and Huang Hao. Neuroprotective effects of purslane herb aquenous extracts against d-galactose induced neurotoxicity.”

The neurotoxicity of D-galactose is not very interesting indeed. But I actually meant the in vivo telomerase activation AND telomere elongation(and then I mean real elongation: telomeres larger than the controls without D-galactose) in a very dose dependent manner, that was casually mentioned in the abstract. But I probably should have mentioned it was about telomerase, since thats not really clear from the title(nor from 95% of the abstract).

From the abstract:

“Meanwhile, PHAS also could up-regulate telomere lengths and telomerase activity in PHAS-fed groups.”

“We found that p21(waf1)was down-regulated by PHAS without changing the expression of p53.”

From the full text version:

“Purslane herb powder also extends the life span of drosophila by regulating telomere length [6].”

“TRF length was determined using pulse gel electrophoresis followed by Southern blot hybridization with telomere-specific probes.Average telomere lengths were shown in Fig. 3A. Telomere length assay revealed that PHAS-fed groups were longer than those in the controls and d-gal model groups. PHAS-fed group of different concentrations led to resulted in the significant increment of the mean telomere length (Fig. 3B, P

Regarding your question re TA65, this is an issue many of us have been wondering about for well over a year now. I might create a new post on the topic soon. For the moment, let me comment:

- while the TA65 bandwagon rolls on there is still no published clinical data as to how well it works and it still is not known for sure what the substance is. For a while it was thought to possibly be Astragaloside IV, a highly refined extract of astragalus root. More recently the speculation is that it is Cycloastragenol, an even more refined astragalus component. This is based on careful reading of a patent that was just issued to Geron. TA65 is licensed by TA Sciences (a marketing company) from Geron (a biotech research company that was the first to deeply explore telomerase).

Back to your question, http://www.revgenetics.com was marketing first Astragaloside IV and then cycloastragenol at reasonable cost, calling the product Astral Fruit. When the news came that the patent was issued to Geron, Anthony Loera the proprietor of revgenetics decided to stop selling the products because they violated the Geron patents. I happened to snag a 3-month supply on a closeout sale. I am not sure where I will get more. It looks like new people are stepping into the telomerase activation game. See the imminst blog http://www.imminst.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=25106 and do a Google search for cycloastragenol for more information.

It looks like taking old-fashioned supplements like fish oil and resveratrol can also result in longer telomeres. See my yesterday blog post on Vitamins, Supplements and Telomerase.

Vince

Thanks

A blog birthday present.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17764668