Molecular hydrogen therapy: A "democratic" emerging strategy against aging and age-related diseases

Aging represents the main risk factor for the development of several diseases, including cardiovascular and metabolic conditions, neurodegenerative disorders and cancer. As the number of elderly people is increasing worldwide, different strategies to counteract age-related diseases have been investigated. Recently, the use of molecular hydrogen (H₂) as a preventive and therapeutic approach has been proposed due to its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, its ability to regulate cell senescence and death, and to restore intestinal eubiosis. Although the studies investigating the role of H₂ in slowing-down aging and age-related diseases are still limited, current findings support the idea that its administration may be able to affect different hallmarks of these processes. The "democratic" characteristics of H₂ rely on its potential widespread use due to its pleiotropic activity, the lack of toxicities and low costs. In this review we provide a comprehensive state of the art on current knowledge on the molecular and clinical features of aging and age-related diseases. Current therapeutic approaches to slow down these processes will be also discussed, with a main focus on the potential use of H₂ as an innovative preventive and therapeutic strategy.