As we age, we all ponder the question: how long will we live?
Now scientists say they are progressing on an ‘anti-ageing vaccine’.
Already there are medicines which slow the progress of certain life-threatening diseases, for example, the US Food and Drug Administration has approved medications that fall into two categories: drugs that may change disease progression in people living with Alzheimer’s disease, and drugs that may temporarily mitigate some symptoms of Alzheimer’s.
Professor Toru Minamino, of Juntendo University in Tokyo, Japan, believes he has taken a step toward boosting human longevity with successful trials of a vaccine to stop the cells that contribute to the ageing process.
How does it work?
In laboratory trials, a drug targeting a protein contained in senescent cells – those which have naturally stopped reproducing themselves – slowed the progression of frailty in older mice. The vaccine also successfully targeted the same cells in fatty tissue and blood vessels, suggesting it could have a positive impact on other medical conditions linked to ageing.
“We can expect that (the vaccine) will be applied to the treatment of arterial stiffening, diabetes and other ageing-related diseases,” Professor Minamino told Japan’s Jiji news agency.
Cellular senescence is thought to contribute to the ageing process itself, as well as ageing-related diseases like Alzheimer’s disease and some cancers.
Will it actually slow down ageing?
“The biological process of ageing is very complex; therefore it is unlikely that one single strategy will completely stop it or reverse it,” said Dr Salvador Macip, head of the University of Leicester’s Mechanisms of Cancer and Ageing Lab in the UK.
“However, there are probably many ways to slow it down, and clearing senescent cells seems to be one of the easiest and potentially more effective.
“The field of anti-ageing research is advancing very fast. In the last decade, there have been many key discoveries.”
“The person that will take the first anti-ageing pill has probably already been born.”
As always, this type of research raises more questions than answers – namely, is this vaccine just a money-spinner?
