Dr. Blagosklonny’s Rapamycin-Based Recommendation for Altos Labs

Altos Labs
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After the January 2022 launch of Altos Labs, a new anti-aging biotechnology company, Mikhail (Misha) Blagosklonny, M.D., Ph.D., joined this exciting public conversation with a recommendation. Dr. Blagosklonny is a prominent scientist in the fields of cancer and aging research. He is well-known for his experimental research articles and theoretical papers on the hyperfunction theory of aging and the pursuit of longevity with rapamycin. On April 22, 2022, his latest research perspective was published in Oncoscience, and entitled, “Altos Labs and the quest for immortality: but can we live longer right now?” 

“Here I discuss how combining rapamycin with other modalities may let us live long enough to benefit from future discoveries in cellular reprogramming and what needs to be done at Altos Labs to make this happen.” (Source: Blagosklonny, 2022)

Altos Labs

Funded by multiple billionaire investors, including Jeff Bezos and Yuri Milner, Altos Labs has announced that their primary focus is on reprogramming cells in the pursuit of reversing the trajectory of many diseases, and thus, reversing aging.

“Altos Labs is a new biotechnology company focused on cellular rejuvenation programming to restore cell health and resilience, with the goal of reversing disease to transform medicine.” (Source: AltosLabs.com)

Altos Labs researchers are aiming to turn back the human aging process by resetting epigenetic clocks within our cells. Cellular rejuvenation programming is a process by which the aging of cells may be reversed, potentially leading to the prevention or reversal of age-related diseases, such as cancer. In animal studies, cellular rejuvenation programming has been shown to lead to improved healthspan and increased lifespan. Researchers at Altos Labs intend to investigate its effects in humans with further research. The process will potentially involve the use of the Yamanaka factors, specialized proteins known as sirtuins and artificial intelligence or machine learning. Implications of successfully developing this technology would be vast, and it could one day lead to a significant extension of the human lifespan.

Dr. Blagosklonny’s Recommendation

Following the public unveiling of this new and highly-funded quest to reverse aging through cellular reprogramming, Dr. Blagosklonny openly chimed in with a perceptive recommendation in his latest research perspective. Given that potential revelations learned from studies at Altos Labs may take years to be brought safely to public markets, Dr. Blagosklonny suggests that research at Altos Labs should also include a deep investigation into rapamycin, a clinically approved mTOR inhibitor. Rapamycin is a promising anti-aging agent that was first clinically approved as an immunosuppressive drug to prevent organ rejection after a kidney transplant. 

“Rapamycin treatment is rapidly becoming a mainstream anti-aging intervention.” (Source: Blagosklonny, 2022)

Dr. Blagosklonny writes that potential life-extension with rapamycin may allow us to slow aging while we await future discoveries that may reverse aging altogether. However, he also writes that treatment with rapamycin alone is unlikely to extend lifespan sufficiently enough to benefit from Altos Labs’ future discoveries within our lifetime. Dr. Blagosklonny urges that discovering efficacious combinations of rapamycin with other therapeutic agents may enable humans today to live long enough to benefit from Altos Labs’ future discoveries in cellular reprogramming.

“If Altos Labs would allocate a small percentage of its funding to develop rapamycin based drug combinations, then additional decades of life extension may be available 3–5 years from now.”

“The number of potential combinations with rapamycin is enormous.” (Source: Blagosklonny, 2022)

Click here to read Dr. Blagosklonny’s full research perspective, published in Oncoscience.

Press release: Altos Labs and the Quest for Immortality: Dr. Blagosklonny’s Perspective.

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