Antibodies are normally protective proteins produced by the immune system to fight bacteria and viruses. Its strength comes from its specificity. When you get sick, the immune system’s B cells go through a highly precise accelerated evolution process to quickly optimize antibodies that bind exactly to what’s causing your illness, without attaching to your body’s own cells. . Antibodies are an important defense against disease in our immune arsenal because they can block invading bacteria or mark them for destruction by other parts of the immune system.
This precise targeting ability also means that they are attractive tools for use in biology and medicine. These can be used to target everything from infectious diseases to cancer. After identifying a specific protein or process that goes wrong in a disease, much of the time and effort spent in drug development is actually focused on finding a drug that fits the identified process while having as few other effects as possible. there is. This provides maximum therapeutic efficacy while minimizing side effects. Therefore, scientists are speculating about using antibodies in clinical applications, since our immune system has already found a way to do this.
The first antibody approved for medical use was muromonab CD3 in 1986, designed (ironically) to suppress the immune system and prevent organ rejection in transplant patients. Hundreds of antibodies are currently being used in everything from cancer treatment to surprisingly everyday applications, such as pregnancy tests and rapid coronavirus tests, which rely on antibodies.
Today, the latest wave of antibody applications is eyeing an even bigger prize: the aging process itself. That’s because the biology of aging makes us more susceptible to a variety of problems, from diseases like cancer and dementia to frailty, incontinence, and gray hair. Slowing down this process could keep us all healthy for longer, and some of that is within the scope of antibodies.
In 2021, a group of researchers used antibodies to direct a deadly drug to aged, “senescent” cells, and found that by eliminating the cells, mice lived longer and healthier lives. Another paper from 2023 used antibodies containing slightly different drugs to rejuvenate the skin of old mice. A cleanup antibody that targets a type of protein modification associated with aging extends the lifespan of genetically engineered mice. And in March 2024, another group reported that antibodies targeting defective bone marrow cells improved responses to a vaccine against the (very inappropriately named) Friend virus in mice in late middle age. . It would be a beautiful symmetry that the very molecules our bodies use to fight disease could be repurposed to improve this ability in old age. We also know that these older bone marrow cells can increase the risk of blood cancers and heart disease, so further testing may reveal broader benefits.
These are all interesting proofs of principle, and it’s valuable that skin and immunity improve with age, but can antibodies slow aging and actually make mice and humans live longer? In July 2024, scientists showed that antibodies targeting a protein called IL-11 could reduce inflammation and extend lifespans by 25 percent in mice. This compares and exceeds the best anti-aging drugs we know of, such as rapamycin. Even better, anti-IL-11 antibodies are already in human clinical trials, with (very) preliminary results showing they are safe.
Greg Winter, who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2018 for his work on isolating and mass producing specific antibodies, said at the 2020 conference: I wish I could get injections once a month or once every six months and forget about all the different combinations of pills. ”His dream may come true in 2025.
