Drug maker Novartis has revealed that it is developing a new medication that can be dubbed as a “fountain of youth” with an aim to hold back the effects of aging.
According to the researchers at Novartis, they conducted a series of studies and found a drug for elderly people that zeroes in on a genetic signaling pathway linked to immune function and aging showed a remarkable lift in their immune systems.
The experimental medication is a modified version of a drug called rapamycin. The experimental drug improved the immune reaction of all the study participants than a flu vaccine by an incredible 20 percent.
Rapamycin belongs to a class of drugs known as mTOR inhibitors, which is capable of counteracting the aging process as well as delaying the diseases related to aging in mice and other animals.
The study is a ‘watershed’ moment in the field of research works into aging and health, said Dr. Nir Barzilai, head of the Institute for Aging Research at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City.
According to Barzilai, the work by Novartis is among the first efforts toward showing that mTOR drugs can delay the effects of ageing in humans as well as animals.
“It sets the stage for using this drug to target aging, to improve everything about aging. That’s really going to be for us a turning point in research, and we are very excited,” he said.
The findings were reported by the researchers in the journal Science Translational Medicine.
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