Artificial intelligence is rapidly becoming one of the most powerful tools in the search for treatments that slow or even reverse aging, with recent studies showing AI-designed drugs and proteins producing early signs of rejuvenation in patients and lab experiments.

But researchers caution that the science is still in its early stages. No therapy has yet been proven to extend healthy human lifespan, and experts say measurable changes in biological markers are not the same as adding years of healthy life.

Still, a string of developments over the past year has pushed the question of whether AI can help people live longer, healthier lives from science fiction toward the laboratory and the clinic.

AI-designed drug shows aging signal

The most striking recent result came earlier this month from Insilico Medicine, a Hong Kong-listed biotech company that uses AI to discover drugs.

In an analysis published Sept. 7 in the journal Nature Biotechnology, the company reported that its experimental drug rentosertib reduced patients' predicted biological age as measured by six separate "aging clocks," tools that estimate how old a person's body appears based on chemical changes in the blood. Patients who received a placebo saw little change.

Rentosertib was developed to treat idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, a rare and deadly lung disease that is strongly associated with aging. Insilico used its AI platform to identify a protein called TNIK as a target linked to both fibrosis and aging biology, then used generative AI to design the drug.

The analysis drew on blood samples from 42 of the 71 patients enrolled in the drug's mid-stage trial. The six aging clocks were developed independently by teams at Harvard Medical School, Oxford........

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