Geroscience

The incidence of stroke, heart failure, dementia, many cancers, coronary artery disease, and physical disability rise exponentially with age. Geroscience is a relatively new discipline that aims to define and modify aging-related biologic pathways, slow age-related disability, prevent age-related diseases, and increase disability-free survival. Medical therapies typically alter biologic pathways to treat or prevent specific diseases. For example, 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-coenzyme A reductase inhibitors (statins) are cholesterol-lowering medications used to prevent development and progression of atherosclerosis. However, disease-focused treatments do not alter aging’s effects on disease and declining function (eg, statins do not significantly reduce noncardiovascular mortality or cancer). In animal models, treatments can alter aging’s effect on disease. For example, in mice, caloric restriction increases mean lifespan from 10% to 40% compared with mice fed ad libitum and favorably affects multiple cellular pathways implicated in aging including nutrient sensing, protein synthesis, autophagy, and inflammation. In adults with obesity and diabetes, compared with non–caloric restriction intervention groups, randomization to receive caloric restriction was associated with a 15% reduction in all-cause mortality and a lower incidence of weight-related chronic diseases. Rapamycin, a drug approved to suppress posttransplant organ rejection, increased mouse median lifespan by 249 days in females and 154 days in males. A rapamycin analogue, everolimus, improved antibody titers to influenza vaccine in older adults. In humans, senescent cells increase in abundance with age and are characterized by growth arrest, apoptosis resistance, and an altered secretome (the set of proteins secreted by a cell into the extracellular space). A greater abundance of senescent cells is associated with more physical impairments and increased mortality. Reducing the number of these cells in animal models extends lifespan and improves physical function, such as grip strength and mobility, and cardiac ejection fraction. However, potential health benefits of reducing senescent cells in humans remain unclear. Therapies that inhibit aging biology, such as caloric restriction, metformin, senolytics, or rapalogs, may slow the development and progression of disease and functional decline in humans.