Step towards beating pain of old age

Scientists have said they may be able to reverse the frailty of old age after using drugs to flush toxic cells from the body.

Scientists have said they may be able to reverse the frailty of old age after using drugs to flush toxic cells from the body.

“It may be possible to delay, prevent and alleviate age-related diseases,” James Kirkland, co-author of a paper published in the journal EBioMedicine, said.

The trial was carried out at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, where nine subjects who had diabetes-related kidney disease were given a mixture of drugs.

For three days they received a medicine usually used to treat cancer and a compound found in fruits and vegetables. The drugs resulted in a 30 per cent fall in senescent cells in fat tissue. Senescent cells secrete damaging chemicals as they ­accumulate in the body, usually as people enter their 60s.

The Times