The tree · branch 7 of 8

Inflammation and the body's messaging

Low-grade inflammation that never switches off, the gut's community of microbes going out of balance, and the signals cells send each other through the blood going wrong with age.

Of the twelve published hallmarks of ageing, this branch groups 3: the signals cells send each other going wrong; low-grade inflammation that never switches off and the gut's community of microbes going out of balance.

Where this branch stands

required: the year cannot arrive until this branch is handled; handled when 2 treatments are in the clinic

2042handled, in the middle run
1of 5 in the clinic already
in clinical usefurthest stage reached

One treatment under this branch is in the clinic already (a drug that acts only on inflammation is approved to prevent heart attacks, 2023); the branch counts as handled when one morereaches it, and in each run of the model that year is drawn from the ranges below. Across all the runs, the middle year this branch is handled is 2042.

5 treatments and tools

listed by how soon each could reach its next rung

A drug that acts only on inflammation is approved to prevent heart attacks In clinical use in the clinic since 2023
Next rung within 5 to 20 years. Low-grade inflammation that never switches off is one of the twelve published kinds of ageing damage (the "hallmarks"), and for decades the question was whether damping it, with no change to cholesterol or blood pressure, would prevent the diseases of age.
Replacing the liquid part of a person's blood slows an age-related disease First human clinic likely 2038, 2030 to 2075
Next rung within 5 to 20 years. If old blood carries signals that hold the body back, then taking out the liquid part (the plasma) and replacing it with salt water and a blood protein should help, and in 2020 a Berkeley group showed that it did in old mice: one such exchange improved their muscle repair, liver and brain.
Blocking one inflammatory messenger protein makes old animals live longer Shown in animals clinic likely 2045, 2034 to 2100
Next rung within 5 to 20 years. Cells talk to each other through proteins in the blood, and some of those messages go wrong with age.
Gut microbes from a young animal rejuvenate an old one Shown in animals clinic likely 2050, 2035 to not this century
Next rung more than 20 years away, if ever. The community of microbes in the gut changes with age, and the change is thought to feed the low-grade inflammation of old age through a leakier gut wall.
Young blood rejuvenates an old animal Shown in animals clinic likely 2048, 2035 to not this century
Next rung more than 20 years away, if ever. In 2005 a Stanford group joined the circulations of a young and an old mouse, an old surgical trick called parabiosis, and found that the old mouse's muscle and liver stem cells woke up and repaired damage like a young animal's.

What would move this

the next test each treatment needs, and the branch's own line

A measured effect in people of exchanging or diluting the blood's plasma, or an anti-inflammatory drug with a healthy-years result in a controlled trial.

A drug that acts only on inflammation is approved to prevent heart attacks Next rung: in wide use. Available to the general public in at least one country without joining a trial, and taken up by many people. Settled by the peer-reviewed trial report; the regulator's approval record; published uptake figures for the wide-use rung.
Replacing the liquid part of a person's blood slows an age-related disease Next rung: in clinical use. A regulator somewhere has approved it, or it is in routine use in a named clinical setting, so a doctor can give it to a patient outside a trial. Settled by the peer-reviewed trial report; the regulator's approval record, or a named clinical setting's published practice, for the clinic rung.
Blocking one inflammatory messenger protein makes old animals live longer Next rung: first human. At least one person has had it, with a public record of that result. Settled by peer-reviewed reports; the trial registry; the regulator's approval record for the clinic rung.
Gut microbes from a young animal rejuvenate an old one Next rung: first human. At least one person has had it, with a public record of that result. Settled by peer-reviewed reports; the regulator's approval record for the clinic rung.
Young blood rejuvenates an old animal Next rung: first human. At least one person has had it, with a public record of that result. Settled by peer-reviewed reports; the regulator's approval record for the clinic rung.

Its history

the handled year, computation by computation

The year was first computed on 17 October 2026, with this branch handled in the middle run by 2042. Every estimate under it is still a first pass. From the second computation on, this section charts the branch's handled year run by run, so a reader who sees the year at the top move can tell which branch moved it.

What the story so far says about it

the promises, the self-experiments and the papers that bear on this branch

Tried on themselves, in public

2013Dave PascoeRunning. A claim about one person is a story, not a record, and it moves nothing on this branch.
2021Bryan Johnson, BlueprintRunning. A claim about one person is a story, not a record, and it moves nothing on this branch.

On the record

31 July 2026Novo Nordisk provides update on the ZEUS phase 3 trial in people with ASCVD, CKD and inflammationA/S.
12 March 2026Grifols and Ace Alzheimer Center Barcelona renew their collaboration to promote the AMBAR clinical program and incorporate new centersS.A..
14 February 2025Infusion of young donor plasma components in older patients modifies the immune and inflammatory response to surgical tissue injury: a randomized clinical trialGaudilliere and 12 others.
29 October 2018Safety, Tolerability, and Feasibility of Young Plasma Infusion in the Plasma for Alzheimer Symptom Amelioration Study: A Randomized Clinical TrialSha and 18 others.
7 October 2024Implausibility of radical life extension in humans in the twenty-first centuryOlshansky and 3 others.
30 May 2020Rejuvenation of three germ layers tissues by exchanging old blood plasma with saline-albuminMehdipour and 9 others.
24 December 2014mTOR inhibition improves immune function in the elderlyMannick and 11 others.
3 January 2023Hallmarks of aging: An expanding universeLópez-Otín and 4 others.
6 June 2013The Hallmarks of AgingLópez-Otín and 4 others.
12 May 2022Foreword to the Aubrey de Grey and Charles Brenner debate (Let's Talk Longevity newsletter)Gobel.
8 September 2019Reversal of epigenetic aging and immunosenescent trends in humansFahy and 9 others.
15 June 2004Escape Velocity: Why the Prospect of Extreme Human Life Extension Matters NowGrey.
17 February 2005Rejuvenation of aged progenitor cells by exposure to a young systemic environmentConboy and 5 others.

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