Blood pressure medication Rilmenidine It has been shown to slow aging in worms, an effect that in humans may help us live longer and stay healthy in our later years.
Rilmenidine was chosen for this latest study because it mimics the effects of caloric restriction at the cellular level in previous studies. It has been proven that reducing the amount of energy in the body by maintaining nutrition can prolong life in several animal models.
Whether this translates into human biology or a A possible danger to our healthIt is a subject. An ongoing debate. Finding ways to achieve the same benefits without the high costs of calorie reduction may lead to new ways to improve health in old age.
Young and old in a series of experiments conducted by a group of researchers Caenorhabditis elegans Worms treated with the drug – commonly used to treat high blood pressure – lived longer and showed higher scores in a range of health indicators, as scientists had hoped they would if they restricted calories.
“For the first time, we were able to show in animals that rilmenidine increases lifespan.” says molecular biogerontologist João Pedro Magalhãesfrom the University of Birmingham, England. “We are now interested in whether rilmenidine may have other clinical applications.”
of C. elegans Worms are popular for study because many of their genes are similar to counterparts in our genome. Yet despite these similarities, it is still a far cry from humans.
Further investigations showed that gene activity related to calorie restriction could be observed in kidney and liver tissue of rilmenidine-treated rats. In other words, some changes in caloric restriction in animals that are thought to provide certain health benefits are seen with high blood pressure medication that many people already take.
Another discovery was that a biological signaling receptor called Niche-1 was critical to the effectiveness of rilmenidine. This particular chemical structure may be targeted in attempts to improve lifespan and slow aging.
“We found that the life-prolonging effect of rilmenidine was abolished when Niche-1 was deleted,” the researchers wrote. Printed paper. “Unfortunately, rescue of the Niche-1 receptor reversed the increase in lifespan when treated with rilmenidine.”
Low calorie diets are difficult to follow and come with a variety of side effects such as hair loss, dizziness and broken bones. It’s still early days, but this antihypertensive drug may be easier on the body and provide the same benefits as a low-calorie diet.
What makes rilmenidine promising as an antiaging drug is that it can be taken orally, is already widely prescribed, and its side effects are rare and relatively mild (they include palpitations, insomnia, and insomnia in rare cases).
Whether rilmenidine works as an anti-aging drug for real people is still a long way to go, but early signs in these worms and mice are promising. We now know a lot about what rilmenidine can do and how it works.
“With a global aging population, delaying aging, even a little, is huge.” Magalhaes says.
The study was published in Aging cell.