A new “anti-aging drug” has been developed by a Stanford Medicine led study. The purpose of this newly made drug is to block a protein that causes cartilage loss through aging. This obviously has great effects and would be a boon for many. The drug is administered through an injection. It has been found that the treatment also helped to prevent the development of arthritis after knee injuries which often occurs to athletes or avid exercisers.
There is even an oral version of the drug that is currently being developed. This will be used for the purpose of treating muscle weakness that is related to aging. This drug is focused on the cause of something called osteoarthritis which is a degenerative joint disease that affects one of every five adults in the United States. The disease has been estimated to cost citizens $65 billion in health care costs each year.
The drug blocks a protein in the body known as 15-PGDH. It has a large relation to aging as it appears much more often the older you get. It can be generally surmised that this drug is very significant for people in the medical field as well as the average citizen. Helen Blau, PhD, professor of microbiology and immunology described the new drug as “a new way of regenerating adult tissue” and that “it has significant clinical promise for treating arthritis due to aging or injury.”
