New Breakthrough: Anti-Aging Drug Prevents Cancer and Extends Life by 25%

A team of scientists announced the development of an amazing drug that works to stop the action of a protein linked to accelerated aging, and they found that it extended the lifespan of mice by 25%.

A protein called interleukin-11 (IL-11) has been linked to chronic inflammation, organ scarring, metabolic disorders, muscle wasting, and heart fibrosis.

Within just 25 weeks of treatment, the mice's risk of cancer was reduced, gray hair disappeared, and vision and muscle function improved.

The 75-week-old mice (equivalent to 55 human years) lived for an average of 155 weeks, compared to 120 weeks for those that were not treated.

Not only did the treatment provide protection against chronic disease and age-related loss of muscle mass and strength, it also reduced the rate of telomere shortening (a repetitive sequence of nucleotides located at the end of chromosomes in most eukaryotic organisms).

As we age, telomeres wear down and become shorter, leading to diseases such as cancer, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease.

“These results are very exciting,” said co-author Professor Stuart Cooke, from the UK’s Medical Research Council Laboratory of Medical Sciences (MRC LMS). “The elderly mice that received the IL11 antagonist were healthier. Although we only achieved these results in mice, they raise the tantalising possibility that the treatment could have a similar effect in elderly humans.”

“Anti-IL-11 therapies are currently undergoing human clinical trials for other conditions, which may provide exciting opportunities to study their effects on human aging in the future,” he added.

Although the trial is not yet complete, the data suggests the drug is safe for humans, Cook told the BBC.

“Our goal is that one day, anti-IL-11 therapy will be used as widely as possible, so that people around the world can live healthier lives for longer,” he continued. “However, this is not easy, as the approval pathways for drugs to treat aging are not well defined, and raising money for clinical trials in this area is very difficult.”

It is worth noting that scientists have studied IL-11 for many years, and in 2018, they showed that it is a protein that stimulates fibrosis and inflammation, overturning years of incorrect characterization as anti-fibrosis and anti-inflammatory.