Combinations of Approaches to Slow Aging are Not Well Explored

Scores of distinct ways to modestly slow aging in short-lived species have been demonstrated in the laboratory over the past decades. Many are redundant, influencing the same underlying mechanism, but others produce effects on the operation of cellular metabolism that are different enough to be synergistic. Unfortunately the research community does very little work on combined therapies; this true for all fields of medicine, not just aging. This is perhaps partially the culture of science, and partially the consequence of heavy handed regulation and intellectual property law. The financial incentives at all level of research and development make it harder to set out to combine therapies or potential therapies than to just work on something else.

Still, some efforts take place, though they fall far short of the "let's try everything at once" concepts that may make sense from a practical point of view. Combining every known method of slowing aging will at the end of the day still fail to produce rejuvenation, as the underlying damage that causes aging is not repaired to any significant extent, but it may well produce enough of a benefit to be worth trying, given that the approaches already exist in some form.

The idea behind the study was to test whether combinations of drugs known to extend healthspan and/or lifespan in animal models could work in synergy and produce even more pronounced effects. The team chose rifampicin, rapamycin, psora-4, metformin, and all...

Source: Fight Aging! - October 31, 2018 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs