--- title: Scientists Can Reverse DNA Aging in Mice description: Researchers have found a way to protect DNA from the damage that comes with aging, and they’re ready to test it in people canonical: https://time.com/4711023/how-to-keep-your-dna-from-aging/ author: Alice Park article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-03-23T19:02:06.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:54:31.270Z article:section: Health og:title: Scientists Can Reverse DNA Aging in Mice og:description: Researchers have found a way to protect DNA from the damage that comes with aging, and they’re ready to test it in people og:url: https://time.com/4711023/how-to-keep-your-dna-from-aging/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt77f0ea9e56720a04/6988bfaf86f68ebf366e3f77/hourglass.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5500 og:image:height: 3094 og:image:alt: hourglass og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Scientists Can Reverse DNA Aging in Mice twitter:description: Researchers have found a way to protect DNA from the damage that comes with aging, and they’re ready to test it in people twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt77f0ea9e56720a04/6988bfaf86f68ebf366e3f77/hourglass.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Scientists Can Reverse DNA Aging in Mice > Sponsored content. 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Health Matters is TIME's daily health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free daily newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ## Video: How CRISPR DNA-Editing Works [Watch (HLS stream): How CRISPR DNA-Editing Works](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/xeP3Y87P.m3u8) (2:22)  _Published 2016-06-22. A brief guide to a ground-breaking new technology._  by [Alice Park](https://time.com/author/alice-park/)  ## Alice Park Senior Correspondent Mar 23, 2017 7:02 PM UTC  A variety of hour glass timers in use A variety of hour glass timers in use Getty Images  by [Alice Park](https://time.com/author/alice-park/)  ## Alice Park Senior Correspondent Mar 23, 2017 7:02 PM UTC Researchers have found a way to protect a mouse’s DNA from the damage that comes with aging, and they’re ready to test it in people. Dr. [David Sinclair](http://time.com/collection-post/70863/david-sinclair-2014-time-100/?iid=sr-link1), from Harvard Medical School, and his colleagues reveal their new findings in the latest issue of [_Science_](http://science.sciencemag.org/cgi/doi/10.1126/science.aad8242)_._ They focused on an intriguing compound with anti-aging properties called [NAD+](http://healthland.time.com/2013/12/19/reversing-aging-not-as-crazy-as-you-think/?iid=sr-link2), short for nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide. It’s been known that younger mice had more of it than older mice and back in 2013, the researchers found that when they boosted the NAD+ levels in older mice, they looked, biologically, like much younger animals. In the latest paper, the scientists revealed new details on how NAD+ works to keep cells young. Sinclair put drops of NAD+ into the water of a group of mice, and within a couple of hours, their NAD+ levels started to rise. Within the first week, the scientists saw obvious age reversal in muscle and improvements in DNA repair. “We can’t tell the difference between the tissues from an old mouse that is two years old versus a young mouse that is three to four months old,” Sinclair says. The reason they think NAD+ has these effects is because the compound is linked to DNA repair functions in the body. Each time cells divide, DNA copies itself—but it’s not always a perfect process, and errors are sometimes introduced, causing damage to the DNA. (Exposure to certain chemicals, environmental pollutants and medical radiation from CT scans can also damage DNA.) Normally, most of these insults can be repaired, as long as there’s enough of the a DNA-repair compound, called PARP1. This repair compound and NAD+ are intimately linked. When NAD+ levels are high, PARP1 is activated and can do its job. But when NAD+ levels drop—as they do in older people—PARP1 also starts to decline, which leads to accumulating DNA damage. Scientists have harnessed this to target cancer cells. A class of cancer drugs called [PARP inhibitors](http://time.com/2810864/brca-gene-can-be-a-cancer-triple-whammy-study-finds/), which are prescribed for breast cancer, interfere with PARP’s ability to repair DNA in the tumor, which ultimately leads to their demise. But not all people who take the drug respond well to it, and manipulating NAD+ levels may be one way to enhance their response. The ultimate test, of course, will be to see if such quick reversal of aging in tissues is also possible in people. Sinclair co-founded a company in Boston, called MetroBiotech, to take the leap of developing and testing a human-grade version of NAD+. He has formulated a capsule version of a precursor to NAD+ called nicotinamide mononucleotide (NMN)—a naturally occurring compound found in small amounts in foods like broccoli, cucumber, avocado and edamame—and plans to test 25 people to see if the compound is safe. If those studies are positive, Sinclair hopes the idea of using NAD+ to protect DNA from age-related damage might have broader applications, such as shielding cancer patients from the side effects of radiation treatments or even protecting people who are exposed to higher radiation work environments from DNA damage. “The idea is to protect the body from radiation exposure here on earth, either naturally occurring or doctor-inflicted,” he says. “If I were going to have an X-ray or a CT scan, I would take NMN beforehand.” He already has plans to go even farther than earth: NASA is collaborating with Sinclair’s group on the human tests to see if it’s possible to insulate astronauts from the effects of cosmic radiation in space. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4711023/how-to-keep-your-dna-from-aging/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4711023/how-to-keep-your-dna-from-aging/"},"headline":"Scientists Can Reverse DNA Aging in Mice","datePublished":"2017-03-23T19:02:06.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:54:31.270Z","description":"Researchers have found a way to protect DNA from the damage that comes with aging, and they’re ready to test it in people","url":"https://time.com/4711023/how-to-keep-your-dna-from-aging/","keywords":["Aging","DNA","Genetics","Longevity","anti-aging"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt77f0ea9e56720a04/6988bfaf86f68ebf366e3f77/hourglass.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alice Park","jobTitle":"Senior Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/alice-park/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt77f0ea9e56720a04/6988bfaf86f68ebf366e3f77/hourglass.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"hourglass","caption":"hourglass","creditText":"Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/aging/","name":"Aging"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4711023/how-to-keep-your-dna-from-aging/","name":"Scientists Can Reverse DNA Aging in Mice"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"How CRISPR DNA-Editing Works","description":"A brief guide to a ground-breaking new technology.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/xeP3Y87P/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2016-06-22T21:08:39.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/xeP3Y87P.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4711023/how-to-keep-your-dna-from-aging/","duration":"PT2M22S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4711023/how-to-keep-your-dna-from-aging/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```