Repurposing drugs for longevity is something I’ve explored for years. Now that we have AI, we’re accelerating the rate at which we’re rediscovering the old drugs that have lifespan-extending potential. Very recently, researchers found that rentosertib, an experimental drug developed to treat lung scarring, might be the latest one.
Rentosertib blocks a protein called TNIK. TNIK is a protein involved in pathways associated with tissue scarring and other processes related to aging. In a small analysis of a clinical trial, researchers found that several protein-based aging clocks estimated younger biological ages in people who received the drug.
Researchers analyzed blood samples from 42 people with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, a disease that progressively scars the lungs. Over 12 weeks, they measured thousands of proteins and fed the results into six different aging clocks. The treated groups showed consistent reductions in estimated biological age relative to baseline, while the placebo group changed little or trended older.
At week four, 11 of 18 comparisons between the treatment groups and placebo showed statistically significant reductions in estimated biological age. In plain English, the results were unlikely to reflect random variation alone under the statistical model the researchers used. That doesn’t prove the drug slowed aging, but it makes the findings really interesting.
Across the treatment groups, researchers identified changes in 326 blood proteins, compared with only two in the placebo group. These included NAMPT, which helps cells produce NAD+, SOD2, an antioxidant defense enzyme, and ALDH1A1, an enzyme involved in aldehyde metabolism. Other changes involved proteins associated with fibrosis, tissue remodeling, and cellular senescence.
We don’t know how this works in people without pulmonary fibrosis. The study was small, lasted 12 weeks, and measured blood-protein patterns rather than lifespan or whole-body rejuvenation. Still, this gives scientists a specific drug target to study further.
Currently, we don’t know of any supplements that selectively inhibit TNIK in humans. There are, however, other ways to work on biological aging with interventions that have human evidence behind them.
In the full version, you’ll learn:
The dose mystery for rentosertib
How to work on your biological age now
The NAD+ connection
The next longevity target
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