Breakthrough in the search for anti-aging medicine

Published 20 July 2024 at 08.40

Foreign. A new medication has been shown to block aging in laboratory animals and extend their lifespan by nearly 25 percent. Now the researchers believe that the drug, which blocks a protein that drives aging, may also work in humans.

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The researchers discovered that the mice on which the drug was tested on gained a more youthful appearance, were healthier, stronger and developed fewer cases of cancer than their untreated counterparts.

The medicine is already being tested in humans, and the researchers hope it will have the same effect in humans as in the mice, reports the BBC.

The research team from the MRC Laboratory of Medical Science, Imperial College London and Duke-NUS Medical School in Singapore investigated a protein called interleukin-11.

Levels of this protein increase in the human body with age and contribute to higher levels of inflammation, which researchers believe controls the rate of aging.

The researchers conducted two experiments. In the first, they genetically modified mice so that they could not produce interleukin-11. In the second experiment, they regularly gave a medication to mice that were 75 weeks old (equivalent to a 55-year-old human) to eliminate interleukin-11 from their bodies. The results, published in the journal Nature, showed that lifespan increased by 20-25 percent depending on gender and experiment.

The mice that lacked interleukin-11 had lower levels of cancer, improved muscle function, were slimmer, had healthier fur and performed better on several age-related tests.

Professor Stuart Cook, one of the researchers behind the study, expressed cautious optimism.

– There are a lot of false promises in circulation, so I try to keep me to the facts, and the facts are that the results are the strongest we have seen to date, he says.

The big unanswered question is whether the same effect can be achieved in humans and whether any side effects are acceptable.

The researchers believe that interleukin-11 has a negative role later in life by driving aging. The drug, a manufactured antibody that attacks interleukin-11, is already being tested in patients with pulmonary fibrosis and the results so far suggest it is safe to use.

This is just one of several strategies to treat aging with drugs. The diabetes drugs metformin and rapamycin, which are used to prevent organ rejection in transplants, are also being studied for their anti-aging effects.

Cook believes that medication is likely to be easier for people than reducing calorie intake – an effective way to slow aging that however, few middle-aged people have the discipline to deal with it.

– Who would want to live half-starved from the age of 40, with a completely unpleasant life, only to live another five years at the end? I wouldn't, says Cook.