Scientists have discovered a 25% increase in the lifetime of mammals, which suggests that an anti-aging medication that might help people live longer and better lives is imminent.

In middle-aged mice, Imperial College found that turning off a protein called interleukin 11 (IL-11) enhanced metabolism, lung health, muscular function, and prevented cancer. It also improved vision and hearing.

It might even stop greying and hair loss.

Imperial posted videos showing untreated mice with weight gain, hair loss, and greying areas on their fur, whereas treated mice looked vibrant with glossy, thick coats.

Additionally, the average lifespan of the treated mice was 155 weeks, while that of the untreated animals was 120 weeks.

Prof Stuart Cook, from the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Medical Science, at Imperial, said: “These findings are very exciting.

“The treated mice had fewer cancers, and were free from the usual signs of ageing and frailty, but we also saw reduced muscle wasting and improvement in muscle strength. In other words, the old mice receiving anti-IL11 (treatment) were healthier.

“While these findings are only in mice, it raises the tantalising possibility that the drugs could have a similar effect in elderly humans.”

Prof Stuart Cook, from the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Medical Science, at Imperial, said: “These findings are very exciting.

“The treated mice had fewer cancers, and were free from the usual signs of ageing and frailty, but we also saw reduced muscle wasting and improvement in muscle strength. In other words, the old mice receiving anti-IL11 (treatment) were healthier.

“While these findings are only in mice, it raises the tantalising possibility that the drugs could have a similar effect in elderly humans.”

Humans inherited the interleukin-11 gene from fish hundreds of millions of years ago.

But while the adaptation was useful then – and still helps limb regeneration in some species – it is now thought to be largely redundant in humans, and caused thickening and scarring of the tissues and inflammation, which brings ageing and disease.

Researchers hit upon the idea that silencing IL-11 might be implicated in ageing after noticing that the protein increases dramatically in laboratory animals with age.
‘Really excited’

Anissa Widjaja, an assistant professor at Duke-NUS Medical School in Singapore, which was working with Imperial, said: “Out of curiosity, I ran some experiments to check for IL-11 levels. From the readings, we could clearly see that the levels of IL-11 increased with age and that’s when we got really excited.

“We found these rising levels contribute to negative effects in the body, such as inflammation and preventing organs from healing and regenerating after injury.”

The team had already discovered that the protein causes inflammation and stopped tissues from regenerating properly, so wanted to see if switching it off could dial down the ageing process.

In an initial experiment on genetically edited mice that had the gene producing IL-11 deleted, the simple gene deletion extended the lives of the mice by more than 20 per cent on average,

Next, scientists treated 75-week-old mice – the equivalent of about 55 years in humans – with an injection of an anti-IL-11 antibody, which stops the effects of the IL-11 in the body.

Researchers said the results were “dramatic”. The mice lived up to 25 per cent longer, and the treatment significantly reduced deaths from cancer in the animals, as well as preventing diseases caused by fibrosis, chronic inflammation and poor metabolism.
‘Better lungs’

Prof Cook added: “The mice had stronger muscles, they had better lungs, they had better skin, better hearing, better vision, multiple improvements.

“So not only can we do it by deleting the gene from birth we can do it with a therapeutic drug given later in life which opens up this possibility of now taking this to humans.”

“Our aim is that one day, anti-IL11 therapy will be used as widely as possible, so that people the world over can lead healthier lives for longer.”

Three companies currently have anti-IL-11 treatments in human clinical trials for scarring lung disease, fibrotic eye disease and cancers.

Lassen Therapeutics, which is conducting trials in the US has said that the drug has “an excellent safety profile”, and experts said it would be relatively easy to start a trial for ageing.

Dr Widjaja added: “Although our work was done in mice, we hope that these findings will be highly relevant to human health, given that we have seen similar effects in studies of human cells and tissues.

“This research is an important step toward better understanding ageing and we have demonstrated, in mice, a therapy that could potentially extend healthy ageing, by reducing frailty and the physiological manifestations of ageing.”

The research was published in Nature and partly funded by the Medical Research Council.