Aging & Longevity News and Discussions

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Unapproved gene therapy for boosting longevity is set to go on sale

A gene therapy that instructs cells to produce more of an anti-ageing protein called klotho is about to be offered by a US company at overseas clinics to bypass FDA rules

By Alice Klein
23 June 2026

An injectable gene therapy that promises to make people live longer will soon become available in certain nations. This is despite the fact that it hasn’t been tested in rigorous clinical trials and doesn’t have approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) or other major regulators.

The gene therapy, developed by Minicircle – a company headquartered in Austin, Texas – is designed to make cells produce more of an anti-ageing protein called klotho. To get around the extensive clinical testing required by the FDA to approve a therapeutic product in the US, Minicircle will offer the largely untested gene therapy to those willing to travel to Honduras, the Bahamas or Panama. The company has opened a waitlist on its website and says it will make the treatment available in the next six months.

Medical ethicists warn that it is reckless to sidestep regulations put in place to protect people from potentially dangerous or useless therapies. “This is the ‘move fast and break things’ mentality of Silicon Valley encroaching on medicine, but the risk is that moving fast with drug development may break people,” says Christopher Rudge at the University of Sydney, Australia.

The anti-ageing effects of klotho, named after a mythological Greek goddess said to spin the thread of life, have been known since the 1990s, when mice lacking the protein were found to age rapidly and die young. Since then, mice that have been genetically engineered to produce excess klotho have been shown to live up to 30 per cent longer. Injections of the protein have also been found to improve memory in older monkeys.

In people, klotho levels naturally decline with age, leading Minicircle and others to try to find ways to replenish them. However, “there have been so many things that have been found to extend lifespan in mice that don’t work in humans”, says Christopher Gyngell at the University of Melbourne, Australia. What’s more, a case report of an infant with excess klotho levels due to a rare genetic condition found she had weak bones and growth problems, suggesting that too much of the protein may be harmful.

https://www.newscientist.com/article/25 ... o-on-sale/

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The 'Shadow' in Evolution That Explains Why Long Life Comes at a Cost
By David Nield
June 28, 2026

Introduction:

(Science Alert) The world's population is shifting. We're living longer than ever before, with elderly people taking up a greater proportion of the people on the planet.

And yet those extra years aren't necessarily being enjoyed in good health.

So how do these shifts interact with what we know about genetics and evolution? How might old age – a relatively recent concept, in the history of Homo sapiens – change our species?

And is the association between getting older and being less healthy inevitable?

Conclusion:

"Aligning evolutionary theory with mechanistic studies and human genomics will enable research to advance from cataloging age-related changes to rationally targeting their upstream causes, compressing morbidity and extending human healthspan."

Read more here: https://www.sciencealert.com/the-shado ... at-a-cost

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Biohacker Bryan Johnson reveals he has incurable disease amid mission to ‘defeat death’

‘My stomach is eating itself,’ the tech entrepreneur announced on social media

Carsen Holaday in New York
Monday 06 July 2026 10:30 EDT

Millionaire biohacker Bryan Johnson has hit a major obstacle in his yearslong quest to “defeat death.”

The 48-year-old tech entrepreneur, who rose to fame for chronicling his extreme health routine curated to reduce his biological age, announced on social media last week that he has been diagnosed with an incurable autoimmune disease.

“My stomach is eating itself,” Johnson wrote in a June 30 post on X. He explained that he has autoimmune gastritis, in which his immune system mistakenly attacks the healthy cells in his stomach lining.

https://www.the-independent.com/life-st ... 09758.html

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