Conclusions

This report has presented the different cellular causes of aging that offer potential pathways for aging-prevention treatments or interventions. To a certain extent, the phenomena associated with aging can be described as physical conditions on a cellular level that, with the proper care and technology, could be reversed or even stopped. Now that living conditions have improved significantly within the last 50 years, human life expectancy is increasingly determined by individual lifestyles and influenced on a cellular level by the nine hallmarks of aging. As such, anti-aging technology is attracting increasing interest as a field of medical research, but who benefits from it? 

In brief, the potential customer base for anti-aging therapies includes all of humanity. We all age, and though some might say they wish to age “the natural way” (and some might even mean it), most people will be interested in living longer lives in a healthy state. There will undoubtedly be opposition, just as there is to vaccination and other medical breakthroughs, but it is ultimately rational and justified to pursue remedies to the aging process.

While early adopters will tend to be relatively wealthy and well-connected, the trend will ultimately spread through the population. Due to the potential benefits, we can expect this process to be quick. As with many medical treatments, the first anti-aging therapies will likely be somewhat expensive. They will most likely be patented, and the respective companies need to recoup the substantial costs of developing the drugs. This presents a pressing ethical dilemma that is outside the scope of this report. 

Most wealthy people live in the developed world, which will likely be the centers of coming anti-aging therapies. This is also where all the scientists and companies involved are located. The developed world has long had low birth rates and an aging population, making the therapies even more needed. Eventually, as patents expire and due to new developments, it is expected that anti-aging therapies will become significantly cheaper and thus more available for the greater population.  

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It is interesting to note that while it is mainly the wealthy urban dwellers who can afford anti-aging products and services, as well as having access to better healthcare facilities, it is often those who are less well-off and live in rural, isolated areas who also tend to live longer, perhaps due to calorie restrictions in their diets that are mostly based on the product of their harvests or trade with nearby inhabitants of their communities. This underscores that a broad, interconnected array of factors determines the dynamics of anti-aging research as well as human aging in general. 

Anti-aging technologies are still in the development phase. A number of companies are seeking breakthroughs by addressing the different hallmarks of aging presented in this report. While some of them are far advanced in terms of research, no products or treatments are ready for commercial release yet.  

At this stage, it appears that each of the different research paths currently being pursued inevitably runs up against negative consequences. In developing treatments based on the known hallmarks of aging, the following main difficulties are encountered: 

• Interventions based on Telomere Length could have a secondary effect of making cells cancerous.
• Senolytics are not precise enough to be used to lengthen life span in human cells.
• Stem Cells from an embryo may be perceived as a foreign body by the new host and may be rejected, while the use of adult stem cells taken from the host could then become cancerous.
• Epigenetics are not developed enough to provide a substantial and safe age reversal or anti-aging effect.
• Autophagy has the nasty side effect of leaving cells vulnerable to becoming cancerous.

Given these potentially substantial side-effects, it appears that at least for now, manipulations that target the hallmarks of aging could instead accelerate the untimely demise that this technology seeks to prevent. Nevertheless, there appears to be confidence that the cellular causes of aging can one day be tweaked in such a way as to provide only beneficial effects while avoiding malignant mutations, as evidenced by the funds and resources currently being dedicated to achieving this goal.  

If our assessment regarding the immediate prospects of this technology comes across as slightly pessimistic, it is important to remember that the very fact that these aspects have been identified already constitutes a breakthrough in understanding how living organisms age and identifying the cellular dynamics that are responsible for aging, but also for cancers and the malignant mutations that cause them. 

Ultimately, our modern-day quest for the fountain of youth must navigate a multiplicity of complex and interrelated factors. Time will tell whether the endeavour proves successful. Among these factors, we should certainly not underestimate the importance of lifestyle aspects, and we will revisit this topic in greater detail in a future update of this dynamic report. We will continue to monitor closely the advances and successes of the different companies listed in this report, since any progress in counteracting the hallmarks of aging will have extensive ripple effects throughout related fields such as oncology as well as our general understanding of medicine, while also bringing us closer to our collective desire to live healthier, longer lives.