26/09/2026
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Scientists testing an AI-designed drug for lung disease found it slowed aging.
An analysis of blood samples from 42 trial participants found that treatment with rentosertib shifted protein patterns toward younger predicted biological ages across six different aging clocks.
The findings are preliminary. They do not establish that the drug reverses aging or helps people live longer.
Developed by Insilico Medicine using generative AI, rentosertib is an experimental treatment for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, a disease that scars the lungs and makes breathing increasingly difficult.
The aging analysis, published in Nature Biotechnology, used samples from a 12-week clinical trial in China. The full trial enrolled 71 patients, with 42 included in the blood-protein analysis.
Researchers used six computational tools called proteomic aging clocks. These estimate biological age or aging-related risk from patterns of proteins in the blood.
Across all six clocks, the treatment groups showed lower predicted biological ages compared with their starting measurements. The placebo group showed little change or slight increases.
Agreement across several clocks makes the finding worth investigating, but it leaves a major question unanswered: did the drug affect aging itself, or did treating lung disease change the proteins those clocks measure?
The researchers explicitly acknowledge that the clocks alone cannot distinguish between those explanations.
The study was also small and lasted only three months. Larger, longer trials will be needed to determine whether these changes persist and translate into meaningful health benefits.
For now, the result offers a reason to investigate whether a treatment for a specific disease might also influence broader processes involved in aging.
Read the study:
"Integration of proteomic aging clocks in a phase 2a clinical trial supports simultaneous geroprotective assessment." Nature Biotechnology
