In a new study, lab mice given an experimental drug were jokingly referred to as "supermodel grannies" because they looked so youthful even while aging beyond their expected lifespan.
As the BBC reports, the trials for a drug believed to flush out a protein known as interleukin-11 — which in early development helps build our bones but later in life causes the kinds of inflammation that triggers much of the illness of aging — have already had intriguing success in mice.
Published in the journal Nature, a paper about the research undertaken by scientists at Imperial College London, Duke-NUS in Singapore, and the MRC Lab of Medical Sciences found that when given a drug that purges interleukin-11, the mice became more lean, had healthier fur, and had significantly lower levels of cancer than their counterparts of the same age.
The drug also, per a press release from the UK government's research arm, extended the median lifespan of male mice by 22.4 percent and female mice by 25 percent.
Now, researchers are working to figure out if the same results might be produced in humans, too.
Currently, the drug that features a manufactured antibody targeting interleukin-11 is also being tested on human patients with lung fibrosis, which causes difficulty breathing due to scarring of the lungs.
Though the human trials aren't yet finished, the researchers behind it are optimistic about its potential.
"This research is an important step toward better understanding aging," Prof. Anissa Widjaja of the Duke-NUS med school in Singapore said in the press release. "We have demonstrated, in mice, a therapy that could potentially extend healthy aging."
Her Duke-NUS colleague and coauthor Stuart Cook was even more enthusiastic when calling the possibilities the drug presents "tantalizing" in the UK press release.
While he's working not to get ahead of himself, Cook told the BBC that he's thrilled by the research because, if it does end up producing a similar anti-aging effect in humans, the drug would be "transformative" — and that he'd take it himself if that's the case.
"There's lots of snake oil out there," the cardiovascular specialist said, "so I try to stick to the data and they are the strongest out there."
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