How nice it would be if you could just pop a pill and stay young! That might seem like the stuff of fiction, but if you sniff the scientific air, you can smell something good.
Senescent cells — cells that have lost power to divide and multiply — contribute to age-related decline. Scientists are looking at some small-molecule drugs that eliminate the senescent cells, but it appears that you have to keep taking them all the time. But now, scientists have discovered a better drug.
Our bodies have what are known as T-Cells, a type of white blood cells, which are the principal players in our immune system — they attack the ‘invaders’ and (most often) kill them. This wonder drug, developed by a group of scientists of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, New York, USA, gets the T-cells attack the senescent cells.
“If we give it to aged mice, they rejuvenate. If we give it to young mice, they age slower. No other therapy right now can do this,” said Corina Amor Vegas, Assistant Professor at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory and one of the authors of the paper.
Well, the drug does not appear to be human-ready as yet. Wait until it becomes ready to be administered to humans. Don’t age.