Viagra and other unlikely candidates lead hunt for new longevity drugs. Several prominent candidates were already dismissed

Is this science or alchemy? It appears so far this program has not yet identified a chemical that extends life, but several promising and some hyped candidates were dismissed.

Not easy to find the fountain of youth! 😊

"Later this year, 240 mice will begin nibbling food laced with sildenafil citrate, the active ingredient in Viagra. An equal number will start dining on chow that includes the antihypertension drug captopril. The mice don’t suffer from erectile dysfunction or high blood pressure. They are the latest rodent recruits in the Interventions Testing Program (ITP), a 22-year-old project funded and run by the National Institute on Aging (NIA) that gauges whether compounds extend longevity in mice—with the hope that they will also do so in people.

So far, the ITP has evaluated more than 
60 drugs, dietary components, hormones, supplement ingredients, and other molecules, alone and in combinations. Sildenafil citrate and captopril are among the eight new candidates announced in late August, a couple of months after NIA announced it would re-up the program’s funding—more than $5 million annually—for another 5 years. ...

[In the past] Some research had suggested certain compounds stretch mouse survival, but the studies were usually small and their results rarely replicated.  ...

To provide credible evidence, the ITP has followed roughly the same procedure for more than 20 years. Each spring, outside researchers nominate candidates that provide health benefits in mice or humans, boost longevity in other organisms, or trigger other positive effects. A committee then selects the six to eight most promising, which are evaluated at UM, the University of Texas Health Science Center, and the Jackson Laboratory.

Researchers test each intervention in 
240 mice—80 at each site—while another 160 serve as controls. The scientists track the mice through the rest of their life spans, which can be more than 2 years. (A companion study, the CITP, assesses possible pro-longevity molecules in nematodes to probe their effects and delve deeper into aging mechanisms.) ...

Among the compounds the project has discredited are the big-selling supplements L-leucine and MitoQ, fish oil, and curcumin, an ingredient in turmeric. The vaunted grape extract resveratrol also fell flat in three rounds of studies. ..."

Viagra and other unlikely candidates lead hunt for new longevity drugs | Science | AAAS

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