Michael Rae
In this update, we review two recent papers that address the question of people with type 2 diabetes who take metformin living longer than people without the disease who don’t, but without the flaw in the 2014 study. We find that, as expected, metformin is a good diabetes drug but shows no sign of being a longevity therapeutic.
TTR cardiac amyloid contributes to heart failure and appears to limit the lives of the longest-lived humans. One AmyloSENS antibody shows high promise to remove this amyloid and restore function in the aging heart in an early-stage clinical trial. A second such antibody is coming close behind it, and a tiny number of people’s immune systems appear to generate such antibodies on their own.
Another clinical trial has now proven that a second AmyloSENS rejuvenation biotechnology that clears beta-amyloid aggregates from the brain also slows down the slide into dementia in people in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease, but this development is only the beginning.
A supporter raises a new angle on an old concern: might fabulously wealthy people hoard longevity therapeutics for themselves? The context for the question and the motivation behind it are different, but the answer is still “no.” Rejuvenation biotechnology will be widely available to aging people, and SENS Research Foundation will work at the front end and the back end to ensure that access to longevity therapeutics expands as quickly and as widely as possible.
When blood from a biologically aged animal is transfused into a young one, the young animal suffers “pro-aging” effects. By contrast, reducing the burden of “pro-aging” signaling factors in old blood is not enough to remove existing damage from a similar-aged mouse’s biologically aged tissues.
UNITY Biotechnology was the first senolytic startup out of the gate, and the failure of its Phase II trial in osteoarthritis was a crushing disappointment. A careful look back at the underlying science and three new scientific papers give us a good idea why and suggest ways to move forward.
A supporter asks us to compare the expected benefits of Cyclarity’s UDP-003 to chelation therapy. Although both target the age-related scourge of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD), EDTA (if it works) dampens down the worst aspects of having ASCVD, while UPD-003 is a SENS “damage-repair” therapeutic which is expected to remove the underlying damage itself and reverse the disease process.
One way senescent cells accumulate is when one senescent cell turns a neighboring cell senescent through SASP secretion. SRF scientists have discovered that these secondary senescent cells are resistant to the classic senolytic drugs. However, they have identified a new senolytic strategy that kills these senescent cells.
A supporter asks us if it would accelerate research progress much faster if did most testing in far shorter-lived animals, like the roundworm C. elegans or the fruit fly Drosophila – rather than mice.
Metformin has been proposed as an “anti-aging drug,” and scientists are organizing TAME, a major clinical trial to test the idea. In the final installment of this 5-part series, we look at TAME itself: how it’s structured, how it’s justified, and how the results could impact the push for longevity therapeutics.
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