Many common chronic diseases and syndromes are ageing-related. This raises the prospect that therapeutic agents that target the biological changes of ageing will prevent or delay multiple diseases with a single therapy. Gerotherapeutic drugs are those that target pathways involved in ageing, with the aims of reducing the burden of ageing-related diseases and increasing lifespan and healthspan. The approach to discovering gerotherapeutic drugs is similar to that used to discover drugs for diseases. This includes screening for novel compounds that act on receptors or pathways that influence ageing or repurposing of drugs currently available for other indications. A novel approach involves studying populations with exceptional longevity, in order to identify genes variants linked with longer lifespan and could be targeted by drugs. Metformin, rapamycin and precursors of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide are amongst the frontrunners of gerotherapeutics that are moving into human clinical trials to evaluate their effects on ageing. There are also increasing numbers of potential gerotherapeutic drugs in the pipeline or being studied in animal models. A key hurdle is designing clinical trials that are both feasible and can provide sufficient clinical evidence to support licencing and marketing of gerotherapeutic drugs.

中文翻译：

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延长寿命、延长健康寿命和超长寿命的新视野


许多常见的慢性疾病和综合症都与衰老有关。这提出了一种前景，即针对衰老生物学变化的治疗药物将通过单一疗法预防或延缓多种疾病。老年治疗药物是针对衰老相关途径的药物，旨在减轻衰老相关疾病的负担，延长寿命和健康寿命。发现老年治疗药物的方法与发现疾病药物的方法类似。这包括筛选作用于影响衰老或重新利用目前可用于其他适应症的药物的受体或途径的新型化合物。一种新颖的方法涉及研究具有超长寿命的人群，以便识别与更长寿命相关且可以成为药物靶向的基因变异。二甲双胍、雷帕霉素和烟酰胺腺嘌呤二核苷酸前体是老年治疗药物的领跑者，这些药物正在进入人体临床试验，以评估它们对衰老的影响。越来越多的潜在老年治疗药物正在研发中或正在动物模型中进行研究。一个关键障碍是设计既可行又可以提供足够临床证据来支持老年治疗药物的许可和营销的临床试验。