New hope for anti-aging drugs as lifespan could be extended with technique used to extend longevity in mice
- Humans can be tested using a technique used to extend longevity in mice
- The study shows how cellular reprogramming could be turned into a therapy
- The aim would be to develop a drug that strengthens resistance to diseases such as cancer
Researchers believe that an anti-aging drug could increase lifespan within five years.
Humans could soon be tested using a similar technique used to extend longevity in mice.
The landmark study shows how cellular reprogramming used to rejuvenate cells in petri dishes could be turned into a therapy.
The aim would be to create a drug that strengthens resistance to diseases such as cancer and dementia and makes people biologically younger.
Lifespan could be extended within five years by an anti-aging drug, researchers believe (stock image)
dr Noah Davidsohn, senior scientist at Rejuvenate Bio, the company behind the research, said, “With this technology, we could easily see something in humans in the next five years.”
Associate Professor of Functional Genomics at the University of Birmingham, Dr. Ildem Akerman added, “Reversing aging in a whole animal using gene programming has not been achieved before.”
The researchers injected mice in their late 70s, the same age as humans, with a modified virus that carries extra pieces of genetic code, The Times reported.
It enabled rodent cells to produce Yamanaka factors, a series of proteins that have been used since the mid-2000s to coax cells into reverting to a “younger” embryonic state.
Mice that received the treatment lived an additional 18 weeks, compared to nine weeks for those that didn’t.
The treated group also recovered epigenetic patterns typical of younger animals.
The study, published on the biorxiv.org website, has yet to be peer-reviewed.
The Office for National Statistics predicts that life expectancy for men born in Britain in 2070 will reach 85 years on average, while women will be almost 88 when they die
dr Andrew Steele, a British bioinformatician and author of a new book on longevity, previously told Web there is no biological reason humans cannot live to be 200 years old.
He believes the big breakthrough will come in the form of drugs that remove “zombie cells” in the body, which are believed to be a major cause of tissue and organ decay with age.
Pills that flush these cells out of the body are already in human trials and, according to Dr. Steele in just 10 years who believes someone reading this could make it to 150 with the help of the drugs.
Another area of particular interest to antiaging scientists is the study of DNA from reptiles and other cold-blooded animals.