The tree · Inflammation and the body's messaging
Blocking one inflammatory messenger protein makes old animals live longer
Cells talk to each other through proteins in the blood, and some of those messages go wrong with age. Interleukin-11 is one such messenger, rising with age and driving scarring and inflammation. In 2024 a Singapore and London group reported that mice bred without it, or old mice given an antibody that blocks it from 75 weeks of age (about 55 in human years), lived about a quarter longer, with less frailty and fewer tumours. It is among the largest lifespan gains from a single drug started late in life in mice. Antibodies against the same protein were in early trials in people for lung scarring, not for ageing, when this was written.
What would count
An old living animal given a drug that blocks a single messenger protein in the blood, started in the second half of its life, afterwards lives longer than untreated controls, in a peer-reviewed report. The first-human rung needs a controlled trial in which people given such a drug improve on an age-related measure (frailty, muscle, a validated clock) more than placebo. For the clinic rung: a regulator approves such a drug for an age-related condition.
Who settles it: Peer-reviewed reports; the trial registry; the regulator's approval record for the clinic rung.
Where it stands
Shown in animals. Reached 17 July 2024, on the record of doi.org. Next rung within 5 to 20 years.
When it reaches the clinic: the project's estimate
This is the one thing on this page that is a judgment rather than a record. The project's estimate of the year it reaches the clinic is 2045, no earlier than 2034 and no later than 2100; the model draws from that range every run, with the likely year the most probable draw. Set 16 October 2026, a first pass awaiting an outside review.
| Rung | No earlier than | Most likely | No later than | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| First human | 2028 | 2032 | 2050 | |
| In clinical use | 2034 | 2045 | 2100 | feeds the year at the top |
Why. An antibody already in people for scarring could be tried in frailty quickly; the likely year for a first human result is 2032, and for an approval in an age-related condition the mid 2040s, allowing for the lung-scarring programmes to establish safety first. The earliest assumes the scarring trials double as the age-related trial; the latest allows for the mouse result being one of the many that do not carry to people.
Changes to this record
None since it was written on 16 October 2026. Every change to the stage or the estimate lands here with its date, the old value, the new one and the reason, and a change to the estimate never happens because a number looked wrong: it needs a dated reason and a source.
The last readings
- 17 October 2026 Quiet
Nothing in the window. No controlled trial of an interleukin-11 blocker on frailty, muscle or a validated clock in people was found, registered or reported, and no new animal lifespan report. The only 2026 item seen is a results posting on 2026-03-09 for a trial of the anti-interleukin-11-receptor antibody LASN01 in thyroid eye disease (ClinicalTrials.gov NCT06226545), which is before the window and not an age-related measure, so it does not bear on the first-human rung. A fourth search aimed at the trial registry for an ageing or sarcopenia trial of such an antibody could not be run because the shared search budget ran out.
What the story so far says about it
No promise, self-experiment or logged paper names this one yet.
Notes
Other single messengers with animal results sit under this leaf in spirit (GDF11, oxytocin, klotho, the TGF-beta family); interleukin-11 is the record because its result is a full lifespan study with a drug started late. A human lifespan result is not asked for at the first-human rung, because no such trial can be run in a working lifetime; a controlled age-related measure is.