3 ms·

I respectfully disagree - many diseases are diseases of aging, in that they appear only when someone has aged significantly. A drug that increased healthspan w

I respectfully disagree - many diseases are diseases of aging, in that they appear only when someone has aged significantly. A drug that increased healthspan would thus treat multiple diseases at once. And in fact, since we still do not have reliable aging clocks - in other words, a good way to tell if a drug has made you younger - one way to assess whether a drug may be treating aging at its root is to see if it is treating multiple diseases at once. A drug that improved outcomes for multiple diseases might turn out to be an anti-aging drug, is the idea (of course, there is no such drug yet!). Anyway, the logic is that instead of delaying multiple chronic diseases separately, we go after aging, which should have that effect anyway (for many people, and for many diseases, but certainly not all).

nradov 5y ago
That's just silly. You're basically talking about a magic drug which doesn't exist even in concept form. It's the equivalent of wishing for cheap fusion power or room temperature superconductors or warp drives. Instead of scifi fantasies, how about working towards something actually achievable?
- robwwilliams 5y ago
  No it is not silly—Coyotespikes is correct. There are fundamental aging processes that increase risks for many later onset diseases. Finding common denominator molecular causes of aging is the right direction for longevity research. Much current work is focused on mitochondrial facets of aging as that possible common and causal denominator. And it does make sense to maintain optimism about solutions. Finally: we all currently live in a scifi fantasy world.
  - coyotespike 5y ago
    Yes, exactly so! Also, we have already been able to find "magic drugs" for mice, worms, fruit flies, yeast, and other organisms. Currently Celine Halioua's Loyal and Matt Kaeberleine's lab are working on doing the same for dogs - a huge step toward doing the same in even larger mammals, humans. Finally, saying the drug doesn't exist in concept form simply reveals complete ignorance of the field of aging research. In fact we have an embarrassment of riches! There are multiple competing paradigms, which each suggest a similar but different mix of therapeutic modalities. We have David Sinclair's paradigm of information loss via analog epigenetic decay, Blagosklonny's paradigm of programmed aging, DNA loss approaches, the very exciting idea of senolytics, partial reprogramming (a hot one), and others. You might read Jose Luis Ricon, or Laura Deming, for a quick overview of the subject. I think we will see the first drug approved specifically to treat aging by 2030 or 2035. Considering how long the current stable of candidates will take to wend their way through the pipeline, that's a pretty optimistic prediction. It will not be a one-and-done deal, but something that will make a difference.

nradov 5y ago

That's just silly. You're basically talking about a magic drug which doesn't exist even in concept form. It's the equivalent of wishing for cheap fusion power or room temperature superconductors or warp drives. Instead of scifi fantasies, how about working towards something actually achievable?

robwwilliams 5y ago
No it is not silly—Coyotespikes is correct. There are fundamental aging processes that increase risks for many later onset diseases. Finding common denominator molecular causes of aging is the right direction for longevity research. Much current work is focused on mitochondrial facets of aging as that possible common and causal denominator. And it does make sense to maintain optimism about solutions. Finally: we all currently live in a scifi fantasy world.
- coyotespike 5y ago
  Yes, exactly so! Also, we have already been able to find "magic drugs" for mice, worms, fruit flies, yeast, and other organisms. Currently Celine Halioua's Loyal and Matt Kaeberleine's lab are working on doing the same for dogs - a huge step toward doing the same in even larger mammals, humans. Finally, saying the drug doesn't exist in concept form simply reveals complete ignorance of the field of aging research. In fact we have an embarrassment of riches! There are multiple competing paradigms, which each suggest a similar but different mix of therapeutic modalities. We have David Sinclair's paradigm of information loss via analog epigenetic decay, Blagosklonny's paradigm of programmed aging, DNA loss approaches, the very exciting idea of senolytics, partial reprogramming (a hot one), and others. You might read Jose Luis Ricon, or Laura Deming, for a quick overview of the subject. I think we will see the first drug approved specifically to treat aging by 2030 or 2035. Considering how long the current stable of candidates will take to wend their way through the pipeline, that's a pretty optimistic prediction. It will not be a one-and-done deal, but something that will make a difference.