Aging rate indicators

Lead article

Aging rate indicators and the search for anti-aging drugs

Steven N. Austad
Matt Kaeberlein
Richard A. Miller

Frontiers in Science

doi 10.3389/fsci.2026.1821393

24,297 views
1 citations

Expert insights

ARTICLE EVENT

Discussion with the article authors

Join Prof Richard A. Miller (University of Michigan, USA), Prof Steven Austad (University of Alabama at Birmingham, USA), and Dr Matt Kaeberlein (Optispan, Inc., USA) for a complementary Frontiers in Science Deep Dive article webinar on accelerating the discovery and clinical testing of anti-aging drugs.

Date & time: 24 November 2026 at 15:00 CET

Frontiers in Science Viewpoint

Published on 17 Sep 2026

Catching aging in motion

Joseph P. McGaunn and Prof Joseph A. Baur, University of Pennsylvania, USA — Identifying reliable aging rate indicators will require verifying that signals are specific to aging, reproducible across populations, and predictive of clinical outcomes.

POLICY OUTLOOK

Published on 17 Sep 2026

Governing aging rate indicators from clinical trials to clinical use

Dr Michael S. Ringel, Life Biosciences, USA, and Board Member, American Federation for Aging Research (AFAR) ; Dr Carolyn B. Ringel, Harvard Medical School, USA — Biomarkers of aging can inform drug trials and clinical decisions as supportive evidence while formal validation continues.

Key points

Agents or combinations shown to extend mouse lifespan by 12% or more, in one or both sexes, include rapamycin, acarbose, rapamycin plus acarbose, 17a-estradiol, 16- hydroxyestradiol, canagliflozin, nordihydroguaiaretic acid (NDGA), and astaxanthin.

Physiological and molecular changes proposed as candidate aging rate indicators (ARIs) include levels of uncoupling protein 1 (UCP1) in adipose tissue, glycosylphosphatidylinositol-specific phospholipase D1 (GPLD1) in the liver, the ratio of inflammatory to anti-inflammatory macrophages in fat, the activation of cap-independent protein translation, and the down-regulation of mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) complex 1 (mTORC1) activity.

By discriminating normal mice from slow-aging mice (even in early adulthood), aging rate indicators could enable more rapid screening of candidate anti-aging drugs in mice and, potentially, in human clinical trials of relatively short duration.

It is hoped that the proposed ARIs will help guide research into the pathogenesis of many age related conditions, such as diabetes, cancer, cardiac disease, and neurodegenerative diseases.

For all readers

PRESS RELEASE

Published on 17 Sep 2026

Frontiers in Science: New way to assess pace of aging could accelerate anti-aging breakthroughs

Twelve candidate indicators, based on studies in mice, could make developing anti-aging interventions faster—while offering new insights into age-related diseases.(Photos: Prof Richard A. Miller of the University of Michigan, USA, Prof Steven Austad of the University of Alabama at Birmingham, USA, and Dr Matt Kaeberlein of Optispan, Inc., USA).