title: Translating advances from the basic biology of aging into clinical application.
abstract: Recently, lifespan and healthspan have been extended in experimental animals using interventions that are potentially translatable into humans. A great deal of thought and work is needed beyond the usual steps in drug development to advance these findings into clinical application. Realistic pre-clinical and clinical trial paradigms need to be devised. Focusing on subjects with symptoms of age-related diseases or frailty or who are at imminent risk of developing these problems, measuring effects on short-term, clinically relevant outcomes, as opposed to long-term outcomes such as healthspan or lifespan, and developing biomarkers and outcome measures acceptable to regulatory agencies will be important. Research funding is a major roadblock, as is lack of investigators with combined expertise in the basic biology of aging, clinical geriatrics, and conducting investigational new drug clinical trials. Options are reviewed for developing a path from the bench to the bedside for interventions that target fundamental aging processes.
authors.affiliation: Robert and Arlene Kogod Center on Aging, Mayo Clinic, 200 First Street, SW, Rochester, MN 55902, USA. Kirkland.james@mayo.edu
authors.forename: James L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Kirkland
mesh_terms: D000375:Aging / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D000818:Animals; D004059:Diffusion of Innovation; D005853:Geriatrics / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D008136:Longevity / Q000502:physiology; D023421:Models, Animal