In a world-first, a revolutionary anti-ageing drug that could dramatically extend human life expectancy, will be tested on people next year.
Like something out of a science fiction novel, researchers believe the drug could see users living healthily past 120 years old.
It could also mean the end of age-related disease such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.
The drug is called metformin. It has already proven to be effective at extending the life of animals, so the Food and Drug Administration in the US has given the green light for a human trial.
“If you target an ageing process and you slow down ageing then you slow down all the diseases and pathology of ageing as well,” says study advisor and ageing expert Professor Gordon Lithgow, from the Buck Institute for Research on Ageing in California.
“I have been doing research into ageing for 25 years and the idea that we would be talking about a clinical trial in humans for an anti-ageing drug would have been thought inconceivable.
“But there is every reason to believe it’s possible. The future is taking the biology that we’ve now developed and applying it to humans.”
If the drug works, it would mean people in their 70s could be as biologically healthy as those in their 50s.
If metformin proves to be successful, it will have an added benefit – on the wallet. Currently used as a diabetes drug, it costs just 10 cents a day.
