(p. A3) Androgens, a kind of sex hormone, have been used to treat certain genetic blood disorders for decades. But doctors haven’t been able to pinpoint exactly why they seem to help some patients. A small study puts forth a theory behind androgens’ disease-fighting mechanism: They help stabilize and even rebuild telomeres, which increasingly diminish in certain conditions and aging.
. . .
The authors of the study, published Wednesday [May 18, 2016] in the New England Journal of Medicine, treated telomere-disease patients who had a variety of conditions with a high dose of a synthetic androgen called danazol. The goal was to test whether the treatment would help keep telomeres intact longer. Instead, they saw them lengthen.
. . .
Experts, including the study’s authors, . . . warned against concluding danazol is a fountain of youth for the healthy, based on research that suggests that shrinking telomeres may be involved in aging.
“That,” said Dr. Agarwal, “would be purely in the realm of speculation.”
For the full story, see:
DANIELA HERNANDEZ. “How Sex Hormones Might Treat Some Diseases.” The Wall Street Journal (Thurs., May 19, 2016): A3.
(Note: ellipses, and bracketed date, added.)
(Note: the online version of the story has the date May 18, 2016, and has the title “How Sex Hormones Might Treat Certain Diseases.” The print version starts with a one-sentence summary paragraph that is absent in the online version. The second paragraph in the print version differs slightly from the first paragraph in the online version. The version quoted as the first paragraph above, is the first paragraph of the online version.)
The academic article mentioned above (though the date given by the NYT above appears to be a day too early), is:
Townsley, Danielle M., Bogdan Dumitriu, Delong Liu, Angélique Biancotto, Barbara Weinstein, Christina Chen, Nathan Hardy, Andrew D. Mihalek, Shilpa Lingala, Yun Ju Kim, Jianhua Yao, Elizabeth Jones, Bernadette R. Gochuico, Theo Heller, Colin O. Wu, Rodrigo T. Calado, Phillip Scheinberg, and Neal S. Young. “Danazol Treatment for Telomere Diseases.” New England Journal of Medicine 374, no. 20 (May 19, 2016): 1922-31.