#longeivity

A new class of drugs has been identified that slow the ageing process in mice, alleviating symptoms of frailty and extending a healthy lifespan. If their effect on humans is as marked as it is on animal models, their benefit could be enormous.

The research was carried out by a team from Mayo Clinic, The Scripps Institute and other institutions and published in the journal Aging Cell yesterday."We view this study as a big, first step toward developing treatments that can be given safely to patients to extend healthspan or to treat age-related diseases and disorders," said co-lead author and TSRI Professor Paul Robbins, PhD."When senolytic agents, like the combination we identified, are used clinically, the results could be transformative.""

The prototypes of these senolytic agents have more than proven their ability to alleviate multiple characteristics associated with ageing," added Mayo Clinic Professor James Kirkland, MD, who also worked on the study. "It may eventually become feasible to delay, prevent, alleviate or even reverse multiple chronic diseases and disabilities as a group, instead of just one at a time."Senolytics target senescent cells, the ones which have stopped dividing and accumulate as we age, accelerating the ageing process.