The road ahead for health and lifespan interventions

Area of Science:

• Gerontology and pharmacology.
• Biomedical research on aging processes.

Background:

• Aging is a significant risk factor for numerous chronic diseases.
• Pharmacological interventions are actively being developed to target aging and age-related diseases.
• Heterogeneity in species, sex, and strain affects drug responses in preclinical models.

Purpose of the Study:

• To survey current pharmacological interventions for lifespan and healthspan extension.
• To review anti-aging interventions in animal models and humans.
• To examine interventions in the NIA's Interventions Testing Program and ClinicalTrials.gov.

Main Methods:

• Literature survey of pharmacological interventions.
• Review of animal study findings on healthspan and lifespan.
• Analysis of human clinical trial data for anti-aging therapies.

Main Results:

• Preclinical studies demonstrate variability in pharmacological responses.
• Translating animal findings to human efficacy and safety remains a challenge.
• Lack of reliable biomarkers for predicting health outcomes complicates human trials.

Conclusions:

• Current research focuses on identifying and validating pharmacological interventions for aging.
• Further investigation is needed to overcome translational challenges and identify predictive biomarkers.
• A comprehensive review of ongoing human trials provides insight into the field's progress.