Longevity Drugs or TRFT
Despite many pre-clinical studies and intense public interest, no clinical trials have begun yet with the expressed purpose of evaluating a gerotherapeutic drug’s ability to increase human longevity. Rather, gerotherapeutic drugs are typically evaluated in a single disease of aging − not across multiple diseases. Even so, only a few human clinical trials have been initiated or completed with proposed gerotherapeutic drugs (primarily methformin, rapamycin, and Dasatinib+Quercetin). For a description of these drugs, their mechanisms of action, and clinical studies thus far, please see Arendash et al., 2023 under the “Publications” tab. Listed below are potential limitations of current gerotherapeutic drugs for targeting the breath of age-related diseases and thus for extending human health span:
- Gerotherapeutic drugs may only target one or a few diseases of aging, thus requiring treatment with multiple drugs to target more diseases of aging
- Gerotherapeutic drugs may only have a single mechanism of action, thus requiring treatment with multiple drugs to target more diseases of aging
- Most gerotherapeutic drugs have difficulty gaining access inside cells to target pathologic processes therein because of cell membranes and the blood/brain barrier (for the brain)
- Gerotherapeutic drugs often have significant side-effects, which would make taking them for decades impractical and potentially risky
None of the above limitations appear to be the case for TRFT, which has no deleterious side effects in completed clinical studies, has multiple mechanisms of action that likely target many diseases of aging, and easily gets into all cells/blood vessels in and around the brain.
FINAL THOUGHTS:
TRFT is presently among the most promising interventions to increase human health/life span. The Clinical and Pre-Clinical work published by Dr. Arendash clearly warrant clinical trials to evaluate the potential for TRFT to increase human health span/longevity. Extending human longevity to 100 years or more through this bioengineered technology is indeed realistic.
