The doctors have unveiled the foundation of youth drug which could help pensioners to remain fit and healthy. The tests showed that small amount of drug called lenalidomide tremendously boosted immune system chemicals key to ward off aggressors from microbes to tumours.
Concentration of one of the defensive composites went up more than hundred fold. Boosting the defense system of the body could make vaccine more effective in those whose immunity has deteriorated with age. The last years of life would be healthier and so hypothetically more contented and more prolific.
They are aiming for longer healthy lifespan and shorter period of infirmity, stated Dr Edward Goetzl who hailed the drug. If the drug worked especially well then user could work longer and remove economic burden of an ageing society and load of their children. And the tiny amounts of the drug required mean that cure is likely to be side-effect free.
Dr Goetzl began by studying levels of immune system chemicals known as cytokines in a group of elderly adults. He found that amounts in healthy pensioners reflected those of much younger people. But in weak pensioners susceptible to infection, levels were low. More study showed that that lenalidomide could raise their levels in comparison to other pill.
No one is talking about longevity and lifespan now but about healthy span. If, at age of fifty, your cytokine levels are the same as they were in twenty-five, you will possibly stay healthy as you age. But if heading downhill then there is needed to do something, stated Dr Goetzl.
In the tests, small doses of lenalidomide boosted production of the cytokine interleukin-2 by one hundred and twenty times, reinstating concentration to youthful levels. The drug also raised levels of interferon-gamma, a second protective cytokine, reported the study published in the journal Clinical Immunology.
Dr Goetzl imagines it firstly being given to men and women aged sixty-five and above when they receive vaccines such as the winter flu jab. But its resemblance to thalidomide, the most notorious drug of the twentieth century, means that any such health drive is likely to be subject to tight controls.