UMD-led Study Could Lead to Lengthened Lives for Patients With Premature Aging Disease

By Emily C. Nunez Oct 18, 2024

UMD researchers found that adding a protein to cells that line blood vessels might be able to improve the cardiovascular health of people with the disease progeria, which causes accelerated aging and death from heart attack or stroke when those afflicted with the disease are teenagers. This confocal image shows a wild-type aorta stained with human lamin A and lamin C (shown in green), Ang2 (red) and the nucleus (blue).

A new University of Maryland-led discovery could spur the development of new and improved treatments for Hutchinson-Gilford progeria syndrome (HGPS), often simply called “progeria”—a rare genetic disorder with no known cure that causes accelerated aging in children.

Publishing in the journal Aging Cell on Friday in collaboration with researchers from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Duke University, the study identified a protein that could enhance the cardiovascular health of animals with a genetically engineered form of progeria, and say it could improve human therapies. Heart failure and stroke are the most common causes of death for people with HGPS, who typically have a life expectancy of between 6 and 20 years. 

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