An arthritis drug might hold the key to reversing aging, scientists say. Scientists have known it is possible to rejuvenate old blood in patients by infusing them with the blood of younger and healthier people, but research is still in its early stages.
But researchers from Columbia University in New York might have found a way to refresh old blood without taking it from other people.
Anakinra, sold under the brand name Kineret and used to treat rheumatoid arthritis, may be able to reverse some parts of aging on the hematopoietic system, which produces our blood.
Anakinra, an arthritis drug, is able to block the deterioration of the blood by stopping the inflammation of the bone marrow, where blood is produced
Stem cells, which live in bone marrow, are responsible for generating blood in someone’s body.
As a person gets older, the hematopoietic stem cells create fewer and fewer red blood cells and immune cells, weakening the immune system which can lead to conditions such as anemia and even cancer.
Columbia University’s study, published in the journal Nature Cell Biology, found that in mice, the hematopoietic system becomes inflamed to the point of deterioration and causes blood stem cells to not work properly.
Deteriorated bone marrow is a key cause of the aging, but anakinra is able to block this by stopping the inflammation from occurring in the first place.
The research team is looking into whether the same could apply in humans and hopes to get clinical trials underway.
Emmanuelle Passegué, director of the Columbia Stem Cell Initiative and lead author of the study, said: ‘Treating elderly patients with anti-inflammatory drugs blocking IL-1B function should help with maintaining healthier blood production.’
Anakinra is given to patients with moderate to severe arthritis who have not improved after using other treatments.
When used for arthritis, it is given as a daily injection. Roughly 1.3 million people in the US have rheumatoid arthritis, which is the most common form of arthritis.
Anti-aging biotechnology has become a popular investment avenue for billionaires in recent years, meaning people could hope to live to 150.
Medical advances in the last century have already led to humans in wealthy nations living into their 80s, almost double the average life expectancy at the turn of the 20th century.
Tech tycoon Bryan Johnson, 45, spends $2million a year on a team of more than 30 doctors and medical experts that oversee and test almost every one of his organs. Their aim is to engineer his body into that of an 18-year-old.
And the founder and billionaire behind Coinbase, an American company that deals with cryptocurrency, is looking to cure aging and is using machine learning to find it.
Billionaires Jeff Bezos and Yuri Milner are also funding a “rejuvenation” startup biotechnology firm with the aim of discovering a way to reverse aging.
