How to speed up anti-aging longevity research? Biomarkers and biological clocks. 9

How to speed up anti-aging longevity research? Biomarkers and biological clocks. 9

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Anti-aging research is accelerating, fortunately. Anti-aging experiments in humans take a long time, they're very difficult to do. So some respected basic scientists are on the websites of anti-aging companies developing multiple compounds. They are often selling supplements without clear human data. Is that a sign that modern anti-aging science gets impatient with the traditional pharmaceutical review process? There's a huge market out there because everybody is aging. Dr. Andrea B. Maier, MD. Dr. Anton Titov, MD. And if we define aging as a disease, following the International Classification of Disease, there are the ICD 11 codes. Aging-related conditions or abnormalities could already be a disease. Everybody is aging, you can imagine that the market is very big. That that's a good thing. And that's a bad thing. I would see there's lots of investments in our field. And that is absolutely a good thing. But what we have to make sure is that we provide quality because we do not want to sell lots of anti-aging supplements without proven effects. Dr. Andrea B. Maier, MD. Dr. Anton Titov, MD. And there might be an effect, but it might just be a placebo because you think it works. So it's very important to go back to basic science and to say, okay, why would a certain supplement work in cells and what are the mechanisms? And then bring supplements very quickly into humans to test if there is a positive effect. I agree with you that it takes a long time to prove that these kinds of supplements or medication work. However, it's doable. I don't think we can use the argument because of time and investment. We shouldn't do it because we need the evidence in a very quantitative way. Dr. Andrea B. Maier, MD. Dr. Anton Titov, MD. So what we do to overcome the difficulty is that human studies take a long time. We must wait until a person develops another disease. That can take 10 if not 20 years. We don't have the time. We use biomarkers. So we are using biomarkers such as the epigenetic clock to determine the biological age. And we already showed that in four months the biological age can change dramatically. So while doing the experiments, not waiting until we've overcome the next disease, we can use biomarkers. We can set up a clinical trial where participants get drugs for four to six months. And we are then measuring the effects. So, in the end, it takes a year until we would have results from these kinds of longevity trials and supplements. Well, this is very important to know that there is a way to do longevity clinical trials in humans. That's clear. Dr. Andrea B. Maier, MD. Dr. Anton Titov, MD. As long as one can trust the markers, then that should work. So this is a very important point that we need biomarkers that are sensitive to change. They can detect if somebody is younger. But regulatory agencies must also accept these biomarkers, the FDA or the EMA, because these are the institutions who will say yes, we you can apply this drug to aging individuals or not. So we must validate all the biomarkers. That's a huge amount of research and investment in longevity field. We have lots of data. Dr. Andrea B. Maier, MD. Dr. Anton Titov, MD. We have randomized controlled trials to see which biomarker is valid to use not only in clinical practice but especially also as an outcome in randomized control trials. 

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