With all the focus and (justified) excitement about new research breakthroughs on slowing down or reversing aging, are there already drugs out there that might do the job?
Dr. Nir Barzilai, director of the Institute for Aging Research at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, thinks there are. As reported here, he’d like to see investors and big pharma companies get more excited about them.
Speaking recently at a health aging conference in Singapore, he told an audience of scientists and doctors that these drugs “take an old cell, an old organ, an old body and make it young.” And because they’ve already been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration, to treat other conditions, “the safety has been tested and the efficacy has been established.”
But to get FDA approval in relation to aging and longevity, new clinical trials would have to be funded. More investor enthusiasm would clearly be beneficial.
Here’s Dr. Barzilai’s list:
Metformin: “One of the most widely prescribed and cheapest diabetes drugs on the market,” it can mimic some of the benefits of fasting and exercise, as well as lower inflammation and risk of cancer. According to Dr. Barzilai, this is the one where new trials are indeed happening: a large-scale trial on healthy aging will take place this year in the USA.
Rapamycin: An anti-fungal compound, it also can reduce inflammation and improve immune function. “Many biohackers have already started taking small, self-prescribed doses of it, hoping to improve their own longevity.”
ACE inhibitors: Angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors lower blood pressure, reducing stress on the heart. “But studies in mice and rats suggest they can also extend the lives of animals with normal blood pressure.”
SGLT2 inhibitors: Another class of diabetes drugs, sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 (SGLT2) inhibitors help lower blood sugar “by pushing more glucose out of the body in urine.” In recent anti-aging tests in mice, SGLT2s have been shown to extend lifespan. “Researchers suspect that the same blood sugar-regulating benefits of these drugs can also help stave off many age-related diseases.”
What’s most encouraging here, to the layman, is that we have serious scientists looking at existing drugs, through the lens of longevity, and not just focusing on the farther horizons. We’ll be watching closely, especially the Metformin trial.