Searching For Medicine For Longer
Lifespan
The search for drugs that slow down ageing, stifle disease and increase longevity
has never been more urgent missouri.scoular. A handful of pharmaceutical companies have thrown
their hats into the ring, while Google and geneticist Craig Venter are committing to
the same goal.
Longevity and healthspan – the number of years people can live well without disease
or disability – have never been more important to society, says Jamie Justice, PhD, a
researcher in aging biology at Wake Forest School of Medicine in Winston Salem, NC.
But to be able to do this, we need a new approach to drug development.
Currently, most drugs are developed for diseases or chronic illnesses, and these
treatments are often associated with high costs and side effects. But if we could find
a drug that extended lifespan and improved quality of life, this could be a major
boon to public policy.
Researchers are already using a variety of anti-aging drugs in animal studies that
have shown promise. One is metformin, a widely used diabetes medication that has
a positive impact on the aging process.
Another is rapamycin, a drug that has been shown to extend lifespan in yeast,
worms and mice in small doses. It is used to prevent organ rejection in transplant
patients, but its potential as an anti-aging agent has been untested in humans.
In animals, it has been demonstrated to improve the ability of senescent cells – the
cells that cause ageing – to produce energy, a critical factor in aging. But rapamycin
is also effective in suppressing inflammation and reducing the risk of cancer.
It also delays the onset of senescence and reduces the amount of free-radical
damage. It could also help protect the body from the ravages of aging, including
arthritis and Alzheimer’s.
The research team is now assessing the effectiveness of the drugs in 500 canines as
part of a study dubbed the Dog Aging Project. The canines are being followed for a
decade to see if rapamycin is effective in extending their lifespan.
While the results from these experiments are exciting, we are still a ways from
finding an effective way to extend human lifespan and achieve healthspan. But
that’s not to say we can’t work toward it.
There are many different potential interventions that have been tested on animal
models that may increase lifespan and how well people or organisms live in those
years, called ‘healthspan’. But a majority of these have not been proven in humans
yet, because of the complexities involved.
However, the underlying mechanisms of aging are conserved across eukaryotes, and
interventions in aging may therefore translate into improvements for humans.
Several drug candidates that target age-related pathways appear to have this effect
in animals, and researchers are now looking to test them in humans.