Jab duo could extend life by up to 16 years and de-age the brain - but are you brave enough to take it?
Scientists are a step closer to creating a 'fountain of youth' treatment that could help humans live into their nineties—and beyond.
The injections involve the 'anti-ageing molecule' klotho, a type of protein that is naturally produced by the body.
Levels of klotho, named after the mythological Greek figure Clotho, who spun the thread of human life, naturally decline as we get age.
This process occurs at the same time we start experiencing age-related maladies like weaker bones, loss of muscle mass and declining cognitive abilities.
Now, Spanish scientists have developed a klotho-based treatment that both increased levels of the protein in mice and boosted the lifespan of the rodents by a fifth.
The experts said this is the equivalent of adding an extra 16 years to an 80 year-old human's lifespan.
Not only did these mice live longer they showed improved muscle strength, bone density and brain function.
While further research is needed before the treatment can be trialled on humans, the authors of the new study claim it could make a massive contribution to improving the ageing process.
In the study, published in the journal Molecular Therapy, experts from the University of Barcelona used a specially modified virus to deliver klotho into the mice's cells.
This harmless virus carried the biological blueprints for cells to produce the protein, enabling the mice to boost their klotho levels over a long period.
Mice were given the virus via two injections—one into a vein in the body and the other directly into the brain.
This enabled it to bypass the natural barrier that normally protects the vital organ and allowed scientists to examine klotho's effect on the brain.
In total, three groups of mice were tested.
One received the treatment at six months of age, another got the dose at 12 months, and a final group of six month old mice got a placebo to act as a control.
Male mice injected at 12 months were found to live the longest (31.5 months on average), a fifth longer than the control group who only lasted 26.3 months.
The average mouse lives for roughly 12 to 18 months.
The researchers noted that klotho levels were the highest among the animals injected at one year old.
Researchers also tested the mice on their physical fitness and found those in the treatment group performed better in experiments measuring coordination and muscle strength.
Tissue analysis showed mice on klotho had less internal scarring on their muscles and were generally more muscular.
Female mice on the treatment, however, did not see the same lifespan extension due to severe health complications that the scientists said were not related to the treatment.
However they did develop stronger bones.
Analysis of brain tissue also showed mice of both sexes showed signs they were developing new neurons in the hippocampus, an area of the brain closely linked to learning.
This suggests the treatment could combat age-related dementia.
Currently the implications for using the treatment in people remain limited.
Mice aren't humans, and many drugs and treatments that have shown promise on rodents have failed to replicate this success when trialled on people.
Also of note is that many of the tissue samples used in the analysis only came from a limited number of rodents, between three and four, which could limit the results.
However, Joan Roig-Soriano, an expert in neuroscience and author of the new study, said techniques that can provide klotho to humans are already available.
'We now have viral vectors that can reach the brain after being administered intravenously, which would make it easier to safely transfer this therapy to humans,' he said.
'Another option would be to administer the protein directly as a drug instead of using viral vectors, but we still need to find an efficient way to deliver it and ensure it reaches the target organs,' he said.
Previous research has shown klotho can improve brain function in old primates and 'de-age' the brains of mice by decades.
Klotho was originally discovered by Japanese researchers who found that the amount produced by mice could affect how long the rodents lived.
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