Hey curious minds, welcome back to our channel, The Research Mind! Today, we have an intriguing question for you: Would you be willing to undergo a treatment (new anti-aging drug) that could extend your life by 25% and reduce the effects of aging on your body?
Researchers from the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Medical Sciences and Imperial College London have made an amazing discovery that could change how we think about aging. They found that blocking a protein called IL-11 can make mice live almost 25% longer in good health. And this discovery might one day help humans too!
Working with experts from Duke-NUS Medical School in Singapore, scientists tested this idea by creating special mice with a gene removed that produces IL-11. These modified mice lived over 20% longer than usual.
But there’s more! The scientists also gave 75-week-old mice a treatment that neutralizes IL-11, and found similar results. Published in the top science journal Nature, their study suggests that this treatment could help people live longer as well. However, we’ll need more clinical trials to be sure.
What’s exciting about this finding is that IL-11 seems to be a real candidate for further testing in humans. Unlike other potential treatments that get stuck before reaching human trials, IL-11 could actually make it to the next stage. Cathy Slack, a researcher from the University of Warwick, says, “There’s a real opportunity here to turn this into actual treatments. That’s a big step forward for the field.”
We already know that chronic inflammation can lead to diseases that come with aging. As our bodies get older, they accumulate damaged proteins and molecules, weakening our immune systems and making us more likely to get infections. These infections can cause more inflammation and potentially lead to serious conditions like cancer.
Researchers had been looking into IL-11 for a while, but they didn’t fully understand how it was connected to aging until molecular biologist Anissa Widjaja stumbled upon it by chance. Her discovery has set the stage for exploring how blocking IL-11 could help animals live longer and healthier lives.
The team’s follow-up tests showed that giving an anti-IL-11 antibody to older mice for 25 weeks had similar positive results. Unlike other anti-aging treatments, like the drug rapamycin, which only improved lifespan but not overall health, this treatment looks promising for both.
Looking ahead, scientists plan to continue their research. They want to test IL-11-blocking drugs in mice with different genetic backgrounds and across various labs to make sure the results are reliable. Although clinical trials can be expensive and complicated, focusing on specific age-related issues like muscle loss might make the process smoother.
This exciting discovery opens up new possibilities for extending our healthy lifespan and improving our quality of life. Keep an eye on our blog—there’s a lot more to come in the world of aging research!
Reference:
- Inhibition of IL-11 signalling extends mammalian healthspan and lifespan [Article]