After 25 years of research about similar subjects especially in the cardiovascular arena and a little protein marker of aging we’ll name later, Dr. Douglas Vaughan and a team from Tohoku University in Japan have come up with a pretty interesting drug.
It’s not as “Dude, I know Kung-Fu”-Cool as The Mousechurian Candidate.
-But it Does prolong the life of mice almost 4x.
Ok, ok, now before we all start getting all crazy; the bad part. The mice in-question had genes that were age-accelerated.
So yes, now the real question comes up: Is this drug, TM5441, one of the rare showcased projects by the NIH, going to help normal people? -I mean, if it can decelerate the accelerated, then can it slow down normal-speed also?
Right now despite the NIH imprimatur, it’s hard to tell, but the possibilities are looking the best for people with problems the most similar to the mice in-question, like accelerated-aging related to their cardio systems, or diabetes, etc.
*BUT Dr. Vaughan specifically did Not rule out something like a newer, people-friendlier version of TM5441 for the rest of us in the future; especially since its trial use counteracted the bad effects on the brain, circulatory system, and organs that the accelerated mice experienced.
“It makes sense that this might be one component of a cocktail of drugs or supplements that a person might take in the future to extend their healthy life.”
Maybe there will even be a test for Humans to simply detect an excess of PAI-1 in the first place, independent of any symptoms at-all; with a commensurate TM5441-like therapy to help-out after that positive-result…
Check out more details at the Links:
Photo Credits:
Publicity Photo for the movie, “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”, by David Fincher, The Kennedy/Marshall Company, and Paramount Pictures
Links:
• Source: Northwestern-Experimental drug prolongs life span in mice
• via: The Mary Sue
• Source Study: PNAS-PAI-1–regulated extracellular proteolysis governs senescence and survival in Klotho mice
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