Antibodies Could Soon Help Slow the Aging Process

Normally, antibodies are Our immune system produces protective proteins that fight bacteria or viruses. Their power comes from their specificity—when you get sick, the B cells in your immune system go through an extremely precise process of accelerated evolution, rapidly optimizing antibodies to bind precisely to whatever makes you uncomfortable, and Does not stick to any of your body’s own cells. These antibodies can disrupt the workings of predatory bacteria or flag them for destruction by other parts of the immune system, making antibodies a key defense in our immune arsenal against disease.

This precise targeting ability also means they are attractive tools in biology or medicine: you can use them to target anything from infections to cancer. After you’ve identified a specific protein or process that’s problematic in a disease, much of the time and effort spent developing a drug is actually finding the drug that hits the process you’ve identified while minimizing the impact on other processes. Influence. This should provide maximum therapeutic benefit while minimizing side effects. So, now that our immune systems have figured out how to do this, scientists speculate on using antibodies for clinical applications.

The first antibody approved for medical use was muromonab-CD3 in 1986, which (ironically) was designed to suppress the immune system and prevent organ rejection in transplant patients. There are now hundreds of antibodies used for everything from cancer treatments to surprising everyday tests like pregnancy tests and rapid COVID-19 tests that rely on them.

Now, the latest wave of antibody applications is pursuing an even bigger goal: the aging process itself. This is because the biology of aging makes us susceptible to a range of different problems, from diseases such as cancer and dementia to frailty, incontinence and gray hair. Slowing this process keeps us all healthy longer—and part of that lies within the sights of antibodies.

In 2021, the research team used antibodies Channeling deadly drugs Aged “senescent” cells, whose removal Shown Let mice live longer and healthier. Another paper from 2023 used a slightly different drug-loaded antibody Rejuvenate skin Old mouse. Antibodies that clean up an age-related protein modification Genetically modified mice live longer. And, in March 2024, another group reported that antibodies Targets defective bone marrow cells Improved response to the (poorly named) Flanders virus vaccine in middle-aged and older mice. It would be a beautiful symmetry that molecules our bodies use to fight disease could be repurposed to improve this ability in old age. We also know that these old bone marrow cells can Increased risk of blood cancer and heart diseaseso further testing could uncover broader benefits.

These are fascinating proofs of principle that better skin and immunity are well worth having as we age, but can antibodies actually slow aging and make mice or humans live longer? In July 2024, scientists showed Antibodies against a protein called IL-11 Reduces inflammation and extends lifespan in mice by 25% – with The best anti-aging drugs We know, for example, rapamycin. Even better, anti-IL-11 antibodies are already entering human trials, (Very) Preliminary Results Show that they are safe.

Greg Winter, who won the 2018 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on isolating and large-scale production of specific antibodies, said at a conference in 2020: “I am old now and have to take various medications. Blood pressure medication. I wish I could have an injection every month or every six months and forget about all these different drug combinations. The year his dream comes true may be 2025.