Throughout human history, there have been stories of people finding ways to extend life, sometimes even indefinitely. Unfortunately, those have all just been fantasy.

According to a new paper that was published in the journal Nature, however, there is a drug in development that may be able to add decades to the expected lifespan of people.

The paper was published by scientists working at Imperial College London, Duke-NUS in Singapore, and the MRC Lab of Medical Sciences. It studies a drug that is currently being tested in mice, showing promising results.

This new drug has a manufactured antibody that targets interleukin-11. Interleukin-11 is an important protein that helps develop bones in early development. That same protein, however, causes multiple types of inflammation in people as they get older, including those that cause age-related illnesses.

When given to mice, the researchers found that they were leaner, had healthier fur, and experienced significantly fewer cases of cancer than mice of similar ages.

In addition, the UK government’s research arm released a press release that said that the median lifespan of the mice that were administered this drug was 22.4% longer in males and 25% longer in females.

Additional research is needed, including trials on humans, to be sure that it will work safely.

Professor Anissa Widjaja of the Duke-NUS Med School in Singapore commented:

“This research is an important step toward better understanding aging. We have demonstrated, in mice, a therapy that could potentially extend healthy aging.”

One of the co-authors of the paper, Stewart Cook, even said that as long as the drug is shown to be safe, he would take it himself due to the promising benefits it offers.

Could we have finally found a real fountain of youth?

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