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“A protein that promotes inflammation could hold the key to a longer, healthier life,” reports Nature:

Blocking the protein, called IL-11, in middle-aged mice boosted metabolism, reduced frailty and increased lifespan by about 25%. Although a research team tested for these health effects only in mice, IL-11 and its molecular partners…also exist in humans. And drug candidates that block IL-11 are already in human trials against cancer and fibrosis, a condition associated with ageing in which scar tissue replaces healthy tissue.

Researchers have long known that chronic inflammation contributes to diseases associated with ageing. As the body grows older and accumulates damaged proteins and other molecules, the immune system often sees these as signs of a possible infection…This can trigger inflammatory responses that might cause further damage and contribute to diseases such as cancer and autoimmune disorders….When [researchers] deleted the gene that codes for the IL-11 protein in some mice, the animals had improved healthspans — they were healthy for longer — and lived 25% longer than mice with normal levels of IL-11.

But “determining the effect of anti-IL-11 drug candidates on longevity in people could be a challenge. A clinical trial examining the impacts on lifespan would be long and expensive, and the results could be difficult to interpret because many confounding factors can affect longevity.”

So it may be difficult to get regulators to approve such drugs to expand people’s lifespans, even if they do in fact expand people’s lifespans.

Regulators can be very slow to approve life-saving drugs, medical devices, and tests. The FDA didn’t approve a home test for HIV until 24 years after it first received an application. According to an FDA advisory committee, the test held “the potential to prevent the transmission of more than 4,000 new HIV infections in its first year of use alone.” That means thousands of people likely got infected with AIDS as a result of the delay in approving it. At least a hundred thousand people died waiting years for the FDA to approve beta blockers.

A virus is being used to cure deafness in a new gene therapy.  Researchers also discovered that a plant virus could be used to save crops from root-eating pests.

Gene therapies are being used to cure inherited blindness and deafness in some people, and to block a painful hereditary disorder. A new gene therapy may cure sickle-cell anemia.

Scientists have developed tiny robots made of human cells to repair damaged cells. And Arizona State University scientists “have successfully programmed nanorobots to shrink tumors by cutting off their blood supply,” eliminating cancers.