An AI-generated drug showed early signs of potentially slowing aging, according to a new study out today in Nature Biotechnology, possibly taking the first small step towards using AI to cure all the diseases tech companies companies keep talking about.
The new study centers on rentosertib, a drug from Insilico Medicine, an AI drug discovery and development company. From the onset, Insilico said it created rentosertib with the aim of both treating patients suffering chronic lung disease and extending their lifespan. In the study, the company showed that its drug managed to successfully reduce some of the biological markers of age, as measured by aging clocks, in a small set of patients.
Aging clocks have moved from a sort of shorthand to a reference of where a person is in their life (“their biological clock is ticking”) to a real metric that aims to measure a person’s morbidity and mortality. A number of these clocks have been developed with AI to take many measurements—biomarkers in blood, physiological metrics, psychological assessments, etc.—and spit out a biological “age” meant to reflect a person’s overall health.
In the 42 participants of the study, Insilico found that its drug managed to reduce their biological ages over the course of the 12-week trial, while those who received a placebo or no treatment saw their age increase or stay the same. The company used six different so-called aging clocks and noticed enough of a shift on all six to conclude that “the drug may modulate complementary dimensions of biological aging.”
The idea of reducing aging certainly sounds good (and has become the obsession of some tech bro-types), but the actual utility of aging clocks is up for debate.
There are several variations of these clocks, all of which take different approaches. The earliest versions, developed over a decade ago, track methylation, which observes chemical changes in DNA. More recent models focus on proteomics, or measuring blood proteins, which a 2024 study found could be used to determine if a person had a higher risk of age-related diseases.
And while some researchers believe that these catch-all measurements could be useful, there’s still a long way to go before they become truly meaningful markers. Scientists have tried to kick-start the field and improve accuracy so that such tools can be used for research purposes, but there still isn’t a measurement that serves as a universally accepted “age” indicator—and some doctors have warned that leaning on these metrics could lead to pursuing the wrong interventions, seeking ways to slow aging indicators in a way that actually harms a body’s repair response.
All that said, a pill that keeps a person’s body from succumbing to the effects of aging would be a breakthrough. Insilico’s pill is still a long way from being that—it’ll have lot of trials to go before getting any sort of regulatory approval.