20th December 2014

Ibuprofen may extend lifespan

Regular doses of ibuprofen can extend the lifespan of yeast, worms and flies by 15 percent, it is reported.

A common, over-the-counter drug for treating pain and fever might also hold keys to a longer, healthier life. Regular doses of ibuprofen extended the lifespan of multiple species, according to research by Texas A&M AgriLife, published this week in the journal PLoS Genetics.

"We first used baker's yeast – which is an established aging model – and noticed that the yeast treated with ibuprofen lived longer," said AgriLife Research biochemist Dr. Michael Polymenis. "Then we tried the same process with worms and flies and saw the same extended lifespan. Plus, these organisms not only lived longer, but also appeared healthy."

The treatment, at doses comparable to that recommended for humans, added on average about 15% more to the species' lives. In humans, that would be equivalent to another 12 or so years of healthy living.

Ibuprofen is a relatively safe drug that was created in England during the 1960s. It was first made available by prescription, then after widespread use it became available over-the-counter around the world in the 1980s. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has included ibuprofen on their "List of Essential Medications" needed in a basic health system. It is described as a "nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug used for relieving pain, helping with fever and reducing inflammation."

Dr. Polymenis says the three-year project showed that ibuprofen interferes with the ability of yeast cells to pick up tryptophan – an amino acid found in every cell of every organism. Tryptophan is essential for humans, who get it from protein sources in the diet.

"We are not sure why this works, but it's worth exploring further. This study was a proof of principle to show that common, relatively safe drugs in humans can extend the lifespan of very diverse organisms. Therefore, it should be possible to find others like ibuprofen – with even better ability to extend lifespan – with the aim of adding healthy years of life in people."

"Dr. Polymenis approached me with this idea of seeing how his cell cycle analysis corresponded with our aging studies," said Dr. Brian Kennedy, CEO at the Buck Institute for Research on Aging in Novato, California. "He had identified some drugs that had some really unique properties, and we wanted to know if they might affect aging, so we did those studies in our lab. We're beginning to find not just ibuprofen, but other drugs that affect aging, so we're really excited about it.

"Our institute is interested in finding out why people get sick when they get old. We think that by understanding those processes, we can intervene and find ways to extend human health span, keeping people healthier longer and slowing down aging. That's our ultimate goal."

Chong He, a postdoctoral fellow at Buck Institute and lead author on the paper, said looking deeper into the common drugs that target individual diseases might shed light on understanding the aging process: "We have some preliminary data on worms that showed that this drug also extended the health span in worms. It made them live not just longer, but also more healthy. You can measure the thrashing of the worms. If they're healthy, they do have a tendency to thrash a lot, and also we can measure the pumping as they swallow, because if they're healthy, the pumping is faster. Ibuprofen is something that people have been taking for years, and no one actually knew that it can have some benefits for longevity and health span."

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