“It's debatable whether healthy people should be exposed to these risks,” says Fernandez Lynch. She said the technology “still raises serious questions about its safety and effectiveness” even for people with life-threatening illnesses. “If you are a healthy person, the risk of harm is more significant because it will have a greater impact on your life.”
But Leshko is adamant. “Over 120,000 people die DAILY from age-related causes,” he wrote in an email. “Building ‘ethical’ barriers around testing on ‘healthy’ people (in fact, aging people) is unethical.” Morgunov did not respond to requests for comment.
Some people still want to take that risk. In a video, influential biohacker Asprey, who has publicly stated that he will “live to be 180 years old,” described VEGF as a “longevity compound” and Eterna CEO Khan, who administered the treatment, called it an “absolute upgrade.” Neither Asprey nor the Khan Clinic responded to requests for comment.
Michael Gusmano, a professor of health policy at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, worries that these messages may give trial participants unrealistic expectations about how much benefit they might receive. “There is huge potential for therapeutic misconception when some famous online influencer promotes something for which there is relatively little scientific evidence,” he says. In fact, he adds, “the only thing you can guarantee is that [the volunteers] will contribute to our knowledge of how this intervention works.”
“I would certainly not recommend anyone I know to participate in such a lawsuit,” Gusmano says.
Penis Project
Muscle testing is just the first step. The Unlimited Bio team also hopes to trial VEGF therapy for hair loss and erectile dysfunction. Leshko points to studies in mice that link high levels of VEGF to larger, denser hair follicles. He hopes to test a series of injections of VEGF therapy into the scalps of volunteers. Morgunov, who is practically bald, has already begun experimenting with this approach.
Erectile dysfunction testing may follow. “We think this method has a lot of potential because injecting gene therapy into the penis sounds exciting,” Leshko says. The protocol for this study has not yet been finalized, but it expects it will involve “five to ten” injections.
Yulja-Herttuala is not optimistic about either approach. According to him, hair growth largely depends on hormones. And injections anything into the penis risks damaging it (although Leshko notes that similar approach was taken over by another company almost 20 years ago). Injecting VEGF gene therapy into the penis can also cause swelling there, adds Yulä-Herttuala.
