#481 The Anti-Aging Pill Chinese Scientists Are Developing - Aiming for 120+ Lifespans - Yip Tszho

Yip Tszho (0:00)

The advancement in gene therapy, especially in China right now, the advancement is so fast. So we think that 150 is totally possible. It's quite realistic. Senescent is a known progress, but accumulation of the senescent cells is the biggest problem.

Siim Land (0:16)

Zico, welcome to the show.

Yip Tszho (0:18)

Thank you for having me. It's my first time doing podcast, and I'm pretty nervous because it's not my native language. So I hope to be on the English.

Siim Land (0:30)

Yeah, but I think we'll still have a very interesting discussion. We met a few weeks ago in Japan at a Tokyo Summit, and you gave me one of these kind of senolytic supplements that you're making, a PCC-1, which we'll talk about in this episode. And coincidentally, I thought it's kind of like just a senolytic supplement, but then also a few weeks from that, I saw some articles written about your company of these Chinese scientists coming out with a pill that can make humans live to the age of 150 So I thought, and then I recognized your face on some of the photos. So then I thought, hey, maybe we should have a podcast and discuss it.

Yip Tszho (1:17)

Yeah, that was like exaggeration. Actually, that was not what we said.

Siim Land (1:22)

Right.

Yip Tszho (1:22)

We said like 150 is, we think 150 is possible, but it's not only one single pill. Like you need to combine multiple advanced therapy. And because we see the advancement like growing rapidly, so that we reckon we could break the limit or the hate limit through like gene therapy and such, right? Because the hate limit, it says that the human could possibly, it has the 120 cap, right? But I would say that the advancement in gene therapy, especially in China right now, that we have seen the advancement so fast. So we think that 150 is totally possible.

It's quite realistic. Yeah. Yeah.

Siim Land (2:17)

Yeah. I mean, it would make sense if you are overcoming the hate limit, which, you know, we can talk about it a little bit later, but it essentially describes the point, like the lifespan of a cell after which it turns senescent. And if we are able to postpone that, then, yeah, we're extending the human lifespan limit, which people think it's 120 Some people say it's 150 Different opinions. But yeah, like you could just add extra years to the human lifespan if you just overcome one of the limitations in our biology. But yeah, maybe we can start with then. So what is this senolytic that you've made, a PCC1? And what makes it different from some other senolytics that people have heard about like Fisetin and Quercetin?

Yip Tszho (3:06)

Yeah, so PCC1 is a B-type Chimeric prosanidin that occurs naturally in certain great seeds, cocoa beans or cranberries, and a few other plants. And in nature, the content is actually really low. Among known sources, African cocoa beans had some of the highest level, but still only on the order of a few parts per thousand.

And the raw material themselves are quite expensive. So what makes PCC1 different is that it stands out as a synilitic, because it's the mechanism and the dosing profile. So PCC1 can selectively enter cells and act on the mitochondria outer membrane, triggering a burst of RS in cells. Because they are already under high stress, high oxidative stress. And senescent cells are right at that critical threshold, right? So this extra RS push causes them to collapse. Whereas in normal cells, the RS increase is too small to do harm. So most classical synalytics, such as desatinate plus quercetin or phytotin, works by inhibiting pro-survival pathway and enzymes that are present in both normal and senescent cells. Senescent cells just express them at higher levels, right? And that makes those controls tricky. You often need like RAM level doses before you get meaningful selective clearance of senescent cells. So by contrast, PCC-1 works at microgram to milligram scales and still shows strong selectivity for senescent cells. This is particularly valuable because senescent and non-senescent cells within the same organ are highly heterogenic. Yeah, heterogeneous. Sorry for the pronunciation. Yeah, a compound that can sense that difference, right? Like PCC-1 has a big practical advantage.

Siim Land (5:20)

Gotcha. So it's made of this grape seed extract you mentioned, and you also said that it's not really found in foods, or it's very rarely found in foods.

Yip Tszho (5:36)

In grape seed extract, we have seen that the highest we have found, basically, we have bought most of the grape seed extract market, and we have tested out, the paper is coming out, and we have seen that the highest potency is about 0.5 to 1 percent. And so, there's a lot of noise in the compound, in the ingredient. That means that, and also with the poor bioavailability, that means that it's not going to work. So what we have done is we have the technology to purify this to a much higher level, and adding in the absorption technology to make you have the right dosage.