Unlocking immortality: the innovations driving human longevity

Science has made great strides in dramatically increasing life expectancy. In the 1900s, the average life expectancy at birth was around 45 to 50 years, while today there is a global life expectancy of around 70 years.

However, an aging population poses major healthcare challenges. With the United Nations predicting that by 2050 22% of the global population will be over the age of 60, there is a need for people to not just live longer, but remain healthier and active for longer too.

Innovation in the field of longevity technology may hold the key to achieving this.

There are frequent stories in the press about the super rich going to extreme lengths to defy aging. But the longevity industry is not just limited to individual billionaires remaining young. It is a fast-growing sector backed by some of the biggest players in healthcare who have recognised the huge potential that longevity research can provide. Predicted to be worth more than $44 billion by 2030, longevity technology has the potential to transform the way we think about healthcare.

In this article, we outline some of the latest developments in longevity technology, some of the challenges that researchers in this field are trying to overcome and future opportunities where we see this exciting technology developing.

What do we mean by longevity?

Longevity is about increasing lifespan and healthspan – maximising the time that we remain healthy and disease-free.

In particular, longevity technology focusses on treating the root causes of aging and preventing the onset of age-related diseases, as opposed to therapeutics that focus on treating diseases that are already present. Of course, longevity technology is not intended to replace the disease-focussed paradigm; rather it complements these treatments as we move towards a holistic approach that seeks to keep people healthy for longer.

Longevity technology embraces diverse life sciences sectors and related disciplines, including cell and gene therapies, artificial intelligence (AI), epigenetics, diagnostics, personalised medicine, antibodies, and small molecule technologies. In the following sections we highlight a few areas where research is gathering real momentum.

Longevity technologies

Senolytics

There are several theories of how and why we age. One such theory is that old cells build up in the body over time and harm the surrounding healthy and normal cells. These cells are termed senescent cells – they no longer divide and function as normal cells yet remain metabolically active and secrete molecules that can damage nearby cells. Sometimes referred to as “zombie cells”, these senescent cells increase in number as we age and their presence has associated with many age-related diseases, such as atherosclerosis and dementia.

Experts have been investigating whether targeting and killing senescent cells – a class of therapeutics termed senolytics – could promote longer, healthier lives.

Pre-clinical data on senolytic intervention has been very encouraging. In one study carried out by scientists from Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, the clearance of senescent cells was found to increase lifespan in mice by an average of eight months – which in mouse terms is a one third increase in lifespan. Not only did it increase lifespan, but the mice were more active and exploratory, experienced fewer eyesight problems, less fat buildup, and had improved heart and kidney health.

Companies involved in senolytic research include Oisín Biotechnologies, who are developing a programmable suicide gene therapy platform targeted at the selective destruction of senescent cells. Cleara Biotech are investigating different types of senescent cells and developing cell-penetrating peptides that can selectively eliminate senescence associated with chronic diseases and cancer.

While clinical research involving senolytics is at a very early stage, there have been some promising early results and grounds for cautious optimism. In April 2023, Unity Biotechnology announced that its senolytic agent UBX1325 led to a statistically significant improvement in vision in a phase II trial treating patients with diabetic macular edema.

Further details on technological advances in targeting senescent cells can be found in our blog here.

Cellular reprogramming

While senolytics focus on purging the body of aged cells, other technologies are trying to reprogram cells back to a more youthful state.

In 2012, Shinya Yamanaka and John Gurdon won the Nobel Prize for their groundbreaking discovery that through the forced expression of “Yamanaka factors” (Oct4, Sox2, Klf4 and c-Myc) mature cells can be reprogrammed to become pluripotent cells. While this technology was originally developed for lab-grown cells, researchers have since been exploring whether it might be possible to apply similar reprogramming techniques within the human body, potentially unlocking new ways to reverse aging and regenerate damaged tissues.

Proof of concept studies in mice have shown great promise, with partial programming by short-term expression of the Yamanaka factors and amelioration of symptoms associated with aging and improving recovery from disease and injury in older mice. One company investigating the use of gene therapy to express epigenetic reprogramming factors to restore cellular function and treat various age-related diseases is Boston-based Life Biosciences. Building on promising pre-clinical research, Life Biosciences achieved a major milestone in 2023 when they restored vision in non-human primates using their gene therapy candidate, as well as announcing that they are on track to initiate a human clinical study in the second half of 2025.

The excitement around cellular reprogramming can also be seen by the substantial investment in companies working in this area. Retro Biosciences, backed by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, has recently announced it is raising $1 billion as it seeks to get its first drug into clinical trials in 2025. Other major players in the cellular reprogramming space include the Jeff Bezos-backed Altos Labs and Google spinout Calico Labs.  

Mitochondrial dysfunction

Another hallmark of aging is mitochondrial dysfunction. A gradual decline in mitochondrial respiration with age has been shown in human muscle tissue in several studies. British biotechnology company MitoRx Therapeutics are developing therapeutics targeting mitochondrial dysfunction seeing to overcome disease states which lead to muscle weakness, muscle wasting, cognitive deficit and neurodegeneration.

Genetic links to long life

The benefits of listening to your elders are well known. But can we also learn the secret to long life from their genetics?

In 2019, targeted sequencing performed on a group of people who live beyond the age of 100 identified a rare mutation of the SIRT6 gene common to these centenarians. SIRT6 encodes a protein belonging to the class of sirtuins, which has long been linked to the regulation of longevity in model organisms such as worms, fruit flies and mice. London-headquartered Genflow Biosciences are developing gene therapies based on this variant.

Preventing the onset of age-related diseases

Part of the longevity paradigm shift involves a greater emphasis on preventing the development of age-related chronic diseases. The more we learn about how these diseases arise, the better equipped clinicians will be to maintain optimal states of health via continuous monitoring of disease-associated biomarkers, and adjustments in therapeutic, lifestyle and behavioural regimes. Research in this area is being driven forward and enabled by advances in biomedicine, genomic sequencing, data science and AI.

It’s well established that regular exercise and a balanced diet increase the likelihood of a long and healthy life. In recent years, a huge buzz has been generated by glucagon‐like peptide‐1 (GLP‐1) receptor agonists and their role in managing type 2 diabetes and weight management.

GLP-1 receptor agonists are also being investigated for their potential benefits across a range of prevalent age-related conditions and complications. After all, GLP-1 receptors also exist in organ systems throughout the body such as the kidneys, heart, blood vessels, the brain. While much more research is needed, there is also some cautious hope that GLP-1 receptors may have more wide-reaching beneficial effects in preventing other chronic diseases, and reducing systemic inflammation.

Another potential “wonder drug” that has been used to treat diabetes and which is now being investigated for its ability to treat aging-related disorders is metformin. The TAME (Targeting Aging with Metformin) is a clinical trial seeking to understand whether metformin can be used to increase lifespan and healthspan in humans, as well as aiming to establish aging as an FDA-approved indication for future clinical trials. Read more about metformin and its potential anti-aging role in our blog here.    

Repurposing existing drugs to treat aging and age-related diseases offers a practical way to speed up the path to clinical approval by building on their established safety profiles. As well as helping to bring effective treatments to market faster, drug repurposing also offers valuable opportunities for patent protection. It is a well-stablished that patents can obtained for innovative new uses of existing drugs, rewarding exclusivity for the development of much-needed therapeutics that can improve lives.

Challenges and opportunities

Longevity technology is in its relative infancy and there are still many unknowns regarding how these treatments will play out as therapeutic and prophylactic intervention in human subjects. For example, while senescent cells are associated with aging, they are also associated with important biological roles such as protecting against cancer, wound healing and tissue repair. Scientists will be closely monitoring clinical trials and further research to better understand how to target aging processes in a safe and effective manner.

A particular challenge that comes with establishing whether therapeutics can reverse the process of aging is how to test this in the clinic. It is one thing to establish whether a drug can keep fruit flies living longer, but how to design a clinical trial that investigates longevity as an endpoint in a clinical trial is another thing entirely.

This is compounded by the fact that aging is not a recognised target for drug development or for treatment. (Although, as noted above and discussed in our blog article on metformin, one of the aims of the TAME trial to convince the FDA to approve aging as an indication). Recognising that much work still needs to be done in order to translate the promising pre-clinical work into therapeutics, recent focus has been placed on identifying biomarkers of aging that can be used to predict biological age and monitor changes in response to intervention.

As well as playing a critical role in providing clinical validation of longevity therapeutics, identifying reliable biomarkers and surrogate endpoints for aging offers valuable opportunities for patent protection. This includes opportunities for obtaining patent protection around new diagnostic and prognostic methods, as well as claims directed to treating patient groups defined based on specific biomarkers. With billions invested in longevity therapeutics, the identification of biomarkers to measure and predict outcomes is crucial to unlocking its full potential. Research groups that secure early patent protection for these biomarkers stand to gain substantial commercial rewards.

Challenges in treating aging have also led researchers to test candidate drugs in clinical trials for specific conditions, even though these therapies could have wider implications in delaying aging and alleviating many different conditions. Another approach being planned by companies such as Genflow Biosciences is to conduct initial trials for disorders such as Werner syndrome that are characterised by the appearance of features associated with rapid aging and can therefore serve as a model for studying premature aging in humans.  

Final thoughts

Longevity technology represents a transformative frontier in healthcare, aiming to extend not just lifespan but perhaps most importantly healthspan, enabling individuals to live more of their lives disease-free. These innovations tackle aging at its root causes, offering new hope in preventing age-related diseases. Advances in genetic research, personalised medicine, and AI are helping to drive the field forward, with major investments and breakthroughs on the horizon. Significant challenges remain, including the complexities of clinical trials and the need for aging-specific biomarkers.

Despite these hurdles, the rapid progress in longevity research holds immense potential to reshape our understanding of aging and redefine what it means to grow older. Innovations in this field offer numerous opportunities for patent protection, ranging from repurposing existing drugs for new medical uses and developing advanced therapeutics like gene therapies, to leveraging AI for identifying and validating much-needed biomarkers of aging. Longevity technology stands at the cusp of revolutionising human health - offering an extraordinary opportunity not just to add years to life, but to add life to those years.