Exploring the Goal of Geroscience: Extending Life through Clinically Approved Drugs

Dr. Mikhail V. Blagosklonny, M.D., Ph.D., Editor-in-Chief of Oncotarget, and Professor, at Roswell Park Cancer Institute, published "The goal of geroscience is life extension" which was selected as the Featured Cover Paper for Volume 12 Issue 3 and reported that although numerous drugs seemingly extend healthspan in mice, only a few extend lifespan in mice and only one does it consistently. Some of them, alone or in combination, can be used in humans, without further clinical trials. Dr. Mikhail V. Blagosklonny from The Roswell Park Cancer Institute said, "Although we do not know everything about aging, we now know enough to start its pharmacologic suppression using clinically approved drugs." Published in 2010, these opening words of the paper entitled "Increasing healthy lifespan by suppressing aging in our lifetime: preliminary proposal" are still relevant today. Hyperfunction of these signaling pathways directly drive all age-related diseases, which are manifestations of aging. We just need clinically available inhibitors of these signaling pathways to extend both healthspan and lifespan, by slowing aging. A mere extension of healthspan is not enough: drugs that fail to extend lifespan in mice will fail to extend lifespan in humans, if used as a monotherapy. Yet, in rational combinations with life-extending drugs, "healthspan-only" drugs may extend lifespan further. In this Oncotarget publication, Dr. Blagosklonny reviews drugs that extend lifespan and healthspan in mammals, in contrast to those that may affect only healthspan without lifespan, and discusses how to proceed with clinical application of lifespan-extending drugs. Blagosklonny concluded in their Oncotarget Research Perspective, "If we want to live longer, we have no choice, but to use drugs such as rapamycin, which extends life in short-lived mammals and is approved for humans use. After all, humans are mammals, and there is no reason to think that they will not work in humans." Please note: This review is intended for a professional audience. This article does not represent medical advice or recommendations to patients. The media should exercise caution and seek expert medical advice for interpretation, when referring to this article. Medical doctors interested in this topic may e-mail the author at Blagosklonny@rapalogs.com or follow on Twitter @Blagosklonny Sign up for free Altmetric alerts about this article DOI - https://doi.org/10.18632/oncotarget.27882 Full text - https://www.oncotarget.com/article/27882/text/ Correspondence to - Mikhail V. Blagosklonny - Blagosklonny@oncotarget.com, Blagosklonny@rapalogs.com Keywords - aging, longevity, rapamycin, mTOR, metformin About Oncotarget Oncotarget is a weekly, peer-reviewed, open access biomedical journal covering research on all aspects of oncology. To learn more about Oncotarget, please visit https://www.oncotarget.com or connect with: SoundCloud - https://soundcloud.com/oncotarget Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/Oncotarget/ Twitter - https://twitter.com/oncotarget LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/oncotarget Pinterest - https://www.pinterest.com/oncotarget/ Reddit - https://www.reddit.com/user/Oncotarget/ Oncotarget is published by Impact Journals, LLC please visit http://www.ImpactJournals.com or connect with @ImpactJrnls Media Contact MEDIA@IMPACTJOURNALS.COM 18009220957x105