Anti-IL-11 Antibody Boosts Lifespan in Mice by Nearly 25%, Paving the Way for Human Longevity Research

Scientists have discovered that inhibiting the protein IL-11 can extend the healthy lifespan of mice by approximately 25%. Led by researchers from the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology at Imperial College London, in collaboration with Duke NUS Medical School in Singapore, the study sheds light on potential implications for human aging.

IL-11, a protein implicated in chronic inflammation associated with aging and age-related diseases, was targeted using an anti-IL-11 antibody in genetically modified mice. This treatment effectively neutralized IL-11’s harmful effects, paving the way for improved health and longevity in the animal models.

According to the study published in the journal Nature, the new results “suggest that those potential treatments might also have an impact on longevity, but separate clinical trials are needed to be certain.” Still, IL-11’s clear path to testing in humans distinguishes it from the crowd of other proteins and rejuvenation interventions, many of which have shown promise in animal models but stalled on the way to clinical trials. “There’s a real opportunity here to translate this into clinical therapies,” says Cathy Slack, who studies the biology of aging at the University of Warwick, UK.

“And that’s where the field is kind of stuck at the moment.” However, researchers have known for a pretty long time that chronic inflammation can lead to diseases that are associated with aging. This means that as and when a body ages, it stores damaged proteins and other molecules. The researchers share that this leads to the other immune system getting affected, often catching an infection.

This infection could trigger further inflammatory responses and cause cancer or other autoimmune disorders. Researchers have been studying the role of IL-11 for quite some time, but they were not sure how the protein and aging were connected until molecular biologist Anissa Widjaja discovered it by accident.