Science Piece on the ITP

For 22 years the NIA’s “Interventions Testing Program“ has been assessing the potential for drugs to slow biological aging in mice. Science has a great piece on this fascinating area of science here. A sample:

The ITP “increases the chances that we will have at least one antiaging intervention that has an effect in humans,” says Jennifer Fox, project scientist for the effort. But turning its insights into treatments is difficult. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) doesn’t consider aging a disease and won’t accept signs of delayed aging as an endpoint for clinical trials. Miller notes that one proposed trial, headed by geneticist Nir Barzilai of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, did receive FDA permission to use indicators such as the occurrence of age-related conditions, including cancer and dementia. However, researchers haven’t been able to raise the $50 million needed to launch the trial, which would track 3000 older people taking the diabetes drug metformin for 6 years.

Cheers,

Colin