As noted in this article, progress towards ways to significantly extend the healthy human life span continues to be slower than desired. Further, most of the approaches to the problem are little better than exercise. One can't conjure extra decades and a reversal of aging using calorie restriction mimetic drugs. That part of the field focused on therapies that can only modestly slow aging must atrophy in favor of more viable classes of therapy, those capable of much greater repair of aged tissue, addressing the known causes of aging in order to allow youthful metabolism and tissue maintenance to reemerge.
The rise of longevity biotechnology is a modern crusade to unlock the secrets of extended life. Billions of dollars have poured into startups, research labs, and bold promises of reversing aging. We have made progress: we know that human life, and especially the lives of lab animals, can be stretched impressively. Yet despite all our high-tech tools, no cutting-edge intervention, whether cellular reprogramming with Yamanaka factors or advanced drug cocktails, has outperformed rapamycin or caloric restriction in animal models, whether tested alone or in combination.
The longevity field projects a contradictory message. On one hand, it claims we are close to developing a drug against aging; on the other, it acknowledges that we still lack a shared understanding of what aging actually is. We are like early aviators tinkering with wings and engines, achieving powered flight through trial and error. Drugs that mimic the effects of caloric restriction, like rapamycin and metformin, are our first creaky airplanes: promising, but still crude.
The ambition to truly defeat aging is not just about building better airplanes; it's about realizing that no airplane, no matter how refined, can reach the moon. To get there, humanity needed rockets, which are based on entirely different principles. Similarly, halting aging will demand not just incremental improvements, but a deep, principled mastery of the fundamental mechanics that drive the aging process.
Link: https://www.lifespan.io/news/playing-the-long-game-towards-radical-life-extension/
View the full article at FightAging
