Here it is, the elixir of life!
Joan Mannick says, jokingly, as she drops a shiny, salmon-pink pill into my palm.
Its RTB101, a drug developed by Mannicks Boston-based biotech company that could change the future of aging forever.
I feel a crazy urge to pop it into my mouth.
In the suddenly hot world of aging science, RTB101 is an A-list celebrity.
But RTB101 has shown real promise, as have other similar drugs.
We have the foundation from decades of animal studies.
We’re ready to move on to people."
Not longer life, but better life
The need is enormous.
In a decade, nearly 1 in 5 Americans will be 65 or older.
Three out of 4 will have two or more serious health conditions.
At least 1 in 4 can expect memory lapses and fuzzy thinking, while 1 in 10 will developdementia.
“Right now doctors play whack-a-mole with chronic diseases in older adults.
The goal instead is to tackle aging itself, the major risk factor for almost every major disease.”
They want to stay out of the red zone the years when health and quality of life decline drastically.
Whoever develops the first one will be very, very famous."
The results were thrilling.
Their immune systems looked younger, with fewer exhausted T cells a depressingly common feature of aging called immunosenescence.
She views her own aging with cheery wonder.
I look in the mirror and think, Wow!
My body is completely different now!
It’s kind of cool, she says, chopping the air with her hands to emphasize her point.
Indeed, her personal passion for the science of aging grew as she watched her parents age.
They were raised in similar kinds of families in the Midwest and West.
“But they have aged completely differently.
My dad is robust and energetic.
My mother is frail and has dementia.
But the older people in my life are beloved to me.
If we can do something about aging, we shouldn’t ignore it.”
The possibility of fewer winter colds was a selling point for me.
Swallowing an experimental drug didn’t worry him.
I’ve been in clinical trials before, so I felt safe, he adds.
My first was a smallpox vaccine booster study right after 9/11.
There was a smallpox scare.
I was too old to fight in the military and wanted to help people."
There were 52 percent fewer severe infections, too.
Those with asthma fared even better, with 68 percent fewer infections.
Their antiviral defenses were turned up, Mannick says.
