Medicines that make people live longer may sound like utopian science fiction.
However, the recent discovery of a drug that can extend the lifespan of mice by 25 percent has renewed hope that a real anti-aging elixir has been discovered.
An international research team discovered that mice stayed healthy longer into old age by inhibiting a pro-inflammatory protein called IL-11.
Scientists say this promising treatment is already being tested in humans for other age-related conditions, but they caution that it is too early to say whether it will be safe in the long term.
Dr Cathy Slack, an expert in the biology of ageing at the University of Warwick, told MailOnline: ‘The functions of IL-11 in mice and humans are very similar, so the possibility that the treatment will work in the same way is exciting.’
Medicines that make people live longer may sound like utopian science fiction. However, the recent discovery of a drug that can extend the lifespan of mice by 25 percent has rekindled hopes for the discovery of a true anti-aging elixir.
As our bodies age, more damaged proteins and chemicals build up, which our immune system can mistake for an infection.
This causes our body to overreact to the natural signs of aging and inflammation to occur, which can have long-term detrimental effects on our health.
Inflammation is linked to cancer, fibrosis, and many other diseases we associate with aging.
While testing a method to detect IL-11, researchers from the UK’s Medical Research Council Laboratory of Medical Science (MRC LMS) found that older mice had significantly higher levels of the protein.
As early as 2016, they discovered that IL-11 is responsible for activating the immune cells and ‘fibroblasts’ that cause the inflammatory response.
This provided the team with the first indication that IL-11 levels could play an important role in the negative effects of aging.
Researchers have discovered a potential anti-aging elixir that extended the lifespan of mice (pictured) by 25 percent in lab tests
The Office for National Statistics predicts that the life expectancy of men born in the UK in 2070 will be an average of 85, while women will be almost 88 when they die. However, researchers hope this could be extended further with a range of new anti-ageing drugs.
To further test this theory, scientists turned off the gene that produces the IL-11 protein in mice to see if the mice would live longer.
They found that the mice in which the gene was disrupted lived 25 percent longer than the mice in which the gene was not disrupted.
In a second experiment, lead researcher Professor Stuart Cook of Duke–National University of Singapore and his team developed an antibody that deleted the IL-11 protein in mice that still had the gene.
Professor Cook injected 37 mice with the antibodies, giving them a dose every three weeks from the age of 75 weeks, which in humans is the equivalent of 55 years.
Compared with the 38 mice that did not receive the treatment, the mice that received IL-11 antibodies lived more than 20 percent longer.
Importantly, the mice not only lived longer, but also stayed healthy for longer – a measure known as ‘healthspan’.
The 75-week-old animals, equivalent to a 55-year-old human, that received the drug (right) lived an average of 155 weeks, compared with the 120 weeks of the untreated animals (left).
Professor Cook said: ‘The treated mice had less cancer and showed none of the usual signs of ageing and frailty, but we also saw less muscle loss and improvements in muscle strength.
‘In other words, the old mice that received anti-IL11 were healthier.’
These results suggest that IL-11 treatment could be used as an ‘anti-aging drug’ in humans.
In their paper, published in Nature, the researchers write: ‘Our data suggest that anti-IL-11 therapy … is a potentially translatable approach for extending human health and lifespan.’
Professor Cook added: ‘Our aim is that one day anti-IL-11 therapy will be used as widely as possible, helping people around the world live longer, healthier lives.’
Mice were injected with antibodies designed to inhibit the production of a protein called IL-11. The mice that received the treatment (right in both photos) showed a lower risk of cancer, less gray hair and better vision compared to the mice that did not receive the treatment (left).
However, experts caution that it is not yet clear whether long-term use of IL-11 inhibition has negative consequences for human health.
A few other potential treatments are currently being investigated for their anti-aging properties, but only a few have the potential to extend health and lifespan in this way.
The drug Rapamycin, for example, blocks the action of a protein that regulates cell growth and breakdown.
Studies have shown that it has a potential anti-aging effect, but it also has some side effects that can affect overall health.
Dr. Slack adds: ‘The effects of IL-11 inhibition on the lifespan of mice reported in the study are similar to those observed with rapamycin.
“But there are concerns that drugs like rapamycin could have long-term adverse health effects because they don’t target specific cells or tissues in the body.”
Famously eccentric biohacker Bryan Johnson (pictured) is taking an anti-aging drug called rapamycin, but there are concerns the compound could have serious consequences for human health
The researchers believe their IL-11 inhibition treatment will have fewer serious side effects than rapamycin (pictured)
However, the researchers believe that turning off LI-11 is unlikely to lead to further complications, as the protein has no useful functions.
Lead researcher Professor Stuart Cook explains in a video: ‘This is something we’ve inherited through evolution from fish and it’s doing good things in fish.
‘Unfortunately for us, it’s an evolutionary hangover that causes damage and disease.’
The study found that IL-11 inhibition has a “reassuring safety profile and is currently in early-stage clinical trials for fibroinflammatory diseases.”
Dr. Slack further notes that the antibody treatment can be refined to make it more targeted and therefore even safer.
But as is so often the case with medical research, it may be too early to know whether this treatment could work in humans.
“It is too early to say anything based on this research, but the initial results reported in human cells are promising,” said Dr. Slacks.
She adds: ‘Clinical trials for human lifespan are virtually impossible – they would take too long and be far too expensive.
‘Instead, trials to determine the effects of IL-11 inhibition on age-related health would be much more likely.’