Thanks to extensive research in the anti-aging field and funding by billionaires, a number of scientific startups are on the cusp of delivering age-reversal solutions.
The newest entrant in the biotech world is Altos Labs. Launched earlier this year, it boasts four Nobel prize winners as its board members. With a funding of $3bn, Altos Labs has some high-profile investors like Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
"Ageing is not the same as rust accumulating on a car, it's not just breakdown," Prof Horvath, one of the reputed academics at Altos labs, told SkyNews. "Rather, there are processes that can be manipulated, you can tweak it. In certain ways, I interpret aging as a software error."
Unbelievably, the oldest human to have ever lived was Jeanne Calment, who died aged 122 in France in 1997.
"There are no hard limits imposed by biology or by physics that says that we can't live better longer," Kristen Fortney, CEO of San Francisco-based BioAge Labs, told the outlet. Focused on discerning the markers of aging, BioAge Labs is using large amounts of biobank blood and tissue samples to do so.
The company has already found a drug target that slows aging-linked muscle loss in mice.
"There is a protein called apelin that circulates in the blood, and we saw that middle-aged people with higher levels of apelin in their blood were living longer, with better muscle function and better cognitive function as they age," Fortney said, according to Express.
"So, we gave this drug to really old mice and we showed that it could improve their muscle function. It helped them run faster in their wheels, it increased their muscle size, it improved their grip strength," the BioAge Labs CEO added.
All that's left is to mimic the same results in older humans, and a trial is underway to this end.
Another participant against the race of time is Salk Institute for Biological Studies, a scientific research institute in California. Scientists at the institute reversed the aging in middle-aged and elderly mice through their experiments and a method called cell rejuvenation therapy. The process involved the use of reprogramming molecules that turned back the cells to a younger state.
"We are elated that we can use this approach across the lifespan to slow down aging in normal animals. The technique is both safe and effective in mice," Juan Carlos, professor at Salk's Gene Expression Laboratory, said.
The traction anti-aging is receiving is only going to grow. According to a report by P&S Intelligence, the global anti-aging market is expected to see an astronomical rise from the current $191.5 billion to a mind-blowing $421.4 billion by 2030, as per Express.
Urja Kalyani