Anti-Aging Drugs: A Quick Review
Many compounds have been proposed to mitigate the effects of aging. Here is a status report.
The eternal quest for immortality
To beat death has been a goal for some people as far back as we have written accounts. One of the earliest known stories, the epic of Gilgamesh (written over 4,000 years ago) involves the quest of the hero for immortality.
Spoiler: he didn’t succeed.
Most of us want to grow up, but nobody wants to grow old.
Old age, after all, comes with a suite of unpleasant changes.
Our immune function declines, the risk for cancer increases, muscle turns flabby or disappears, joints creak, connective tissue loosens, and your memory is no longer what it used to be. Even our microbiome changes.
The quest for immortality, though, persists.
As science and technology progress, we become ever more able to untangle the biological complexities of aging. We are beginning to identify the molecular processes and pathways that elicit changes associated with aging. This has led to, among others, two advances:
- Biomarkers that allow us to assess these processes and possible interventions. Such biomarkers can…
