Scientists who gave fruit flies a triple-drug combination treatment and found that it extended their lives by almost 50% say their work offers clues on how to fight aging in people. The researchers said their aim is not to find the secret of eternal life but to figure out the mechanism of the aging process to find ways to help people stay healthy for longer. "We are not trying to cheat death, but help people be healthy and disease-free in their final years," said a professor at University College London's Institute of Healthy Aging and the Max Planck Institute for Biology of Aging who co-led the work.
The three drugs - the mood stabilizer lithium, a cancer treatment called trametinib and an immune regulator called rapamycin - target different cellular processes and had a "quite remarkable" impact on the flies' lifespans, the scientists said. And since the three drugs are all already in…
