A medicine used to treat high blood pressure could one day help scientists find new ways to slow aging.
Researchers from the University of Liverpool have found that rilmenidine can extend life and improve signs of health in laboratory animals.
Rilmenidine is not a newly invented drug. It has been used to lower high blood pressure in some countries, which makes it especially interesting to researchers looking for medicines that could potentially be used for other purposes.
Aging is the biggest risk factor for many common diseases, including heart disease, cancer and dementia. Instead of treating each age-related illness separately, some scientists are studying whether it may be possible to slow biological aging itself and help people remain healthier for longer.
One of the best-known ways to extend life in laboratory animals is calorie restriction. This means reducing calorie intake while still providing enough vitamins, minerals and other nutrients to avoid malnutrition.
Studies in many animals have found that calorie restriction can extend lifespan and delay some age-related health problems. However, maintaining a major reduction in food intake for years would be difficult for most people and could have unwanted effects.
Scientists are therefore searching for treatments that can copy some of the biological effects of calorie restriction without requiring people to eat much less. Rilmenidine attracted attention because earlier research suggested that it may affect some of the same processes inside cells.
In the study, researchers first tested rilmenidine in the tiny roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans, an animal widely used in aging research. Worms are useful because they have short lives, allowing scientists to study lifespan changes much more quickly than they could in humans.
The researchers found that rilmenidine treatment helped the worms live longer and improved measures of health during both young and older ages. The effects resembled some of the benefits previously seen with calorie restriction.
The team also studied the drug in mice to see how it affected biological activity in mammals. They found changes in the liver and kidneys that were linked to pathways associated with calorie restriction, although the study did not show that rilmenidine makes mice or humans live longer.
Further experiments pointed to a cell receptor called the I1-imidazoline receptor as an important part of the drug’s effects. In the worms, a related receptor known as nish-1 was needed for rilmenidine to produce its lifespan benefits.
This finding may help scientists understand exactly how the drug influences aging. Learning which biological pathways are involved could also help researchers identify other possible treatments for promoting healthier aging.
Rilmenidine has some practical advantages as a research candidate because it can be taken by mouth and already has a history of medical use. Still, a medicine being safe enough for treating high blood pressure does not automatically mean it is safe or effective as a long-term anti-aging treatment.
The research was published in the peer-reviewed journal Aging Cell in January 2023. The international study was led by researchers including Professor João Pedro Magalhães, then at the University of Liverpool, and examined whether rilmenidine could produce effects similar to calorie restriction.
Much more research is needed before anyone can say whether rilmenidine could slow aging in people. Human clinical trials would need to test appropriate doses, long-term safety and whether the drug actually improves meaningful measures of health as people grow older.
For now, the study offers an intriguing clue rather than an anti-aging treatment people can use. It also shows why researchers are increasingly looking at existing medicines for unexpected benefits that could eventually help people spend more of their later years in good health.
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