Much of the benefit of stem cell therapies results from the signals released by those cells in the short time they survive in the body following transplantation. Much of that signaling is carried by extracellular vesicles, membrane-wrapped packages of molecules. Extracellular vesicle therapies can in principle become considerably less costly than stem cell therapies, because manufacture can be centralized, and because extracellular vesicles are much more readily stored and transported, but we are not there yet. Thus while extracellular vesicle therapy is certainly available to those with the time and patience to navigate the medical tourism space, or find suppliers and a cooperative physician inside the US, the schedule of 36 doses over 18 months used in this study is beyond the financial reach of most individuals at the present time. Still, it is quite interesting to see that the researchers demonstrated improvement in cognitive function in the aged monkeys assessed in the study.
Aging humans and non-human primates both exhibit a similar pattern of cognitive decline beginning in middle age that is characterized by progressive impairments in rule learning, executive function, and working and recognition memory-functions often associated with dysfunction of prefrontal and medial temporal lobe regions. The heterogeneity and inter-subject variability in aging and age-related cognitive impairments present challenges for developing effective therapeutics and can be attributed to differing degrees of cortical white matter (WM) damage and alterations to local and long-range prefrontal and temporal networks.
A promising therapeutic that has been shown to be efficacious in mitigating WM damage and improving cognitive function in rodent models is mesenchymal cell-derived extracellular vesicles (MSC-EVs). In the present study, late middle-aged rhesus monkeys were systemically administered monkey-derived MSC-EVs every 2 weeks for 18 months. We demonstrate that MSC-EV treatment improves spatial working memory and decreases the frequency of perseverative responses with largely no effects on recognition memory. These cognitive improvements were associated with increases in MRI diffusion measures of WM structural integrity over time as well as preservation of inter-network functional connectivity as measured by resting-state functional MRI.
These findings suggest that MSC-EV treatment can slow or reverse age-related cognitive decline while strengthening WM integrity and improving functional connectivity in late middle-aged rhesus monkeys.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11357-025-01992-0
View the full article at FightAging
