Can a Drug Slow Aging?

An article in The Daily Mail claims that medical science may be on the cusp of developing pills that can help to slow, or even reverse, the aging process. Although actually reversing the aging process is a longer term ambition, slowing it substantially may be close to being realized, and alot of very wealthy people are investing a lot of money in realizing it:

Sam Altman, 37, was revealed to have funded biotech startup Retro BioScience to the tune of $180 million last month. He is the latest in a long line of Silicon Valley billionaires to throw their considerable wealth behind the science of aging. Amazon's Jeff Bezos is reported to have invested $3 billion in life-extension startup Altos Labs.

PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel invested in the Methuselah Foundation, which has the goal of making "90 the new 50". Tech billionaire Peter Thiel invested in the Methuselah Foundation, hoping to greatly exceed the average person's lifespan.

With all these resources being thrown at curing aging, Andrew Steele, the author of the 2020 book Ageless: The New Science of Getting Older Without Getting Old, believes pills to prevent aging may be on pharmacy shelves within five years.

While aging does not directly kill people, older people are at risk of many deadly diseases such as Alzheimer's, heart disease and cancer. Around 100,000 people die from age-related diseases every day, according to the World Health Organization.

Drugs which can kill aging cells and restore a measure of vigor are called "senolytics" and there are dozens of companies researching them:

In mice, these drugs cause elderly animals to become lively and healthy suddenly. 'Many of these drugs are drugs that we already understand and use for different purposes, so we don't have to develop new medications,' Mr Steele said.

An example of a senolytic treatment is the combination of datasinib, used for chemotherapy, and quercetin, a molecule found in fruits and vegetables. Used together, they remove aged 'senescent' cells responsible for many of the problems associated with aging.

Another potential general anti-aging drug is metformin. First approved in 1994 for type 2 diabetes, the drug has shown promise extending lifespans by improving blood vessel health.

The article quotes Steele as saying that,

Some of those companies are trying to develop new and more effective drugs that could do the same thing better. That's the sort of thing that's very, very close to clinical realization. And I'd be shocked if in five years we don't have some senolytics in the clinic.

It probably won't be for aging at first. It'll be for a specific disease - and maybe in 10 years, we'll use it for aging.

These things are very, very near term.

There's more at the link. This may all be hype, of course, but it raises the prospect of an interesting confrontation between those who believe we need to limit or reduce the number of people on the earth and those who welcome the prospect of extending human life spans.

It's probably safe to say that the latter group is going to win out. They have both numbers and wealth on their side.

Which fact probably assures us of one thing. If these drugs ever do get produced they'll probably be, at least at first, the monopoly of the wealthy.