AI-generated drug may slow aging: study
A new AI-developed drug can reverse biological aging by three to four years, according to biotechnology startup Insilico Medicine.
In a study published in Nature Biotechnology, researchers tested Rentosertib using six biological "aging clocks." Participants receiving a 30 mg dose twice daily displayed a biological age reversal of about three to four years. A certain aging clock estimated the reversal by up to six years.
"All six models consistently indicated a reduction in predicted biological age among patients treated with rentosertib," wrote Insilico in its statement.
Biological age refers to how quickly a person's body is aging based on the condition of the organs. This is not to be confused with chronological age, which measures a person's age based on the number of years since birth.
"What convinces me is not the size of the effect, but the agreement, because these models share neither their features nor their training data," said Michael Levitt, 2013 Nobel Prize laureate in Chemistry, commenting on the six independent clocks confirming the same directional shift.
The trial, however, has not yet separated slower aging from a treated lung. The dose that most improved lung function was different from the dose that produced the strongest signs of age-reversal, meaning the slowing of biological age was not just a side effect of treated lungs.
Researchers have yet to see the effects of the drug on healthy participants.
This is the first clinical-stage study performed by Insilico with an international team of scientists from Harvard Medical School, Stanford University, The Broad Institute, RWTH Aachen University, Peking University, and Westlake University. According to Insilico, its future blueprints for dual-purpose clinical trials will all use the same model that incorporates geroscience into standard disease trials.
Alex Zhavoronkov, founder and co-CEO of Insilico Medicine, said the study serves as a proof of concept for a sustainable commercial model: using AI to target root aging biology while treating specific age-related diseases.
"This first program demonstrates the first proof of concept for the novel dual-purpose therapeutic targeting aging but proposed toward the age-related disease discovered in record time making exploratory development in multiple indications commercially viable," Zhavoronkov said.
