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A therapy based on the science that allows axolotl salamanders to regrow severed limbs can help mice live 25 per cent longer, according to the latest breakthrough in anti-ageing research.
The technique, which involves suppressing a pro-inflammatory protein, protects the rodents against multiple illnesses and is in early-stage human clinical trials for fibrotic lung disease.
The results highlight hopes of how a deepening understanding of the role of individual genes and proteins could help increase both lifespan and healthspan — years of healthy life — in humans.
“What we’ve come across is a pro-inflammatory factor that drives ageing in the broadest sense,” said research leader Stuart Cook, a professor at Duke-NUS Singapore and the UK’s MRC Laboratory of Medical Sciences. “We’ve found that if you inhibit this factor, you increase healthspan — [and] also lifespan as a corollary. It’s a knock-on effect.”
The new research, published in Nature on Wednesday, focuses on the role of a protein named IL-11 that stokes inflammation. Increased production of this protein is associated with ageing in mice, the scientists found.
Deleting the genes that instruct IL-11 production protected the mice against various illnesses, metabolic decline and frailty, the research showed. That in turn enabled the rodents to live on average 24.9 per cent longer.
Blocking IL-11 with an antibody had a similarly positive effect on lifespan for middle-aged mice. Males aged 75 weeks — roughly equivalent to 55 years in humans — lived 22.5 per cent longer, while the figure rose to 25 per cent for females.
Inhibition of IL-11 appeared to cut the incidence of age-related cancers, confirming previous theories, the researchers said.
While the study did not include data from tests on humans, Cook said he was confident that beneficial anti-ageing effects would be observed in people.
IL-11 has long been a subject of biological interest because of its role in the extraordinary regeneration processes of some species. It helps fish, tadpoles and axolotls restore lost fins, tails and limbs, according to previous research.
The protein plays a role in the bodily development of humans, but has become an increasing problem for adults who now live much longer than their ancestors. Cook compared IL-11’s role in ageing to pouring “petrol on a fire”.
The research adds to the portfolio of promising anti-ageing techniques. Another area of interest is senolytics, the elimination of elderly cells.
The data from the Cook team’s research looked “solid” but the techniques suggested did not necessarily seem superior to senolytics, said Ilaria Bellantuono, professor of musculoskeletal ageing at Sheffield university.
“In addition, there is no evidence that it would work in advanced age, when deficits are more prominent,” Bellantuono added.
Human trials are needed to provide further data on such anti-ageing techniques, though even if successful there will still be obstacles to rolling out therapies. Identifying who is at risk of frailty can be difficult and frailty is not always recognised by regulators as a medical condition for the purposes of drug cost reimbursement.
