Aging study underway at U-of-I

University of Iowa researchers say a rare disease that accelerates aging may have yielded clues to treat problems of normal aging. The disease Progeria (pro-jeer’-e-uh) causes young children to age rapidly and most die by the age of 13. U of I Radiology professor Larry Oberley led a study of the disease. He says it shows a problem with the proteins in Progeria patients. Oberley says they are trying to treat the disease by altering the proteins of the diseased cells in the lab. He says success could lead to the treatment of normal aging problems. Oberley says it could be a couple of years before they have a treatment that can be used on humans. Oberley says the treatment could be similar to gene therapy used to treat cancer.