Anti-ageing drug ‘could be on the market within three years’, scientists say

A breakthrough in anti-ageing research could lead to an effective anti-ageing pill being on the market within three years, researchers have said.

Researchers from the University of New South Wales say that the drug – which actually reverses ageing – could also help NASA get astronauts to Mars.

The drug improves the way bodies repair DNA (something which declines as we age) – and mice treated with it showed revolutionary improvements.

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Professor David Sinclair of UNSW said, ‘The cells of the old mice were indistinguishable from the young mice, after just one week of treatment.

‘This is the closest we are to a safe and effective anti-ageing drug that’s perhaps only three to five years away from being on the market if the trials go well.’

Human trials will begin this year at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, in Boston.

The drug has also attracted interest from NASA, the researchers say.

Even on short missions, astronauts experience accelerated ageing from cosmic radiation, suffering from muscle weakness, memory loss and other symptoms when they return.

On a trip to Mars, the situation would be far worse: five per cent of the astronauts’ cells would die and their chances of cancer would approach 100 per cent.