New Delhi, Jul 20 (IANS): An international team of researchers conducted a mice study that showed that targeting the production of a key inflammatory protein can extend lifespan, and reduce old age-related diseases.

The team from the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Medical Science (MRC LMS), Imperial College London in the UK, and Duke-NUS Medical School in Singapore investigated the effects of inflammatory proteins IL-11 by generating mice with the IL-11 (interleukin 11) gene removed.

This increased the mice's lifespan by more than 20 per cent on average, revealed the study, published in the journal Nature.

They also gave 75-week-old mice, equivalent to around 55 years in humans, an injection of an anti-IL-11 antibody, a medicine that inhibits the effects of IL-11 in the body.

Mice treated with an anti-IL-11 drug from 75 weeks of age had their median lifespan extended by 22.4 per cent in males and 25 per cent in females, with an average lifespan of 155 weeks compared to 120 weeks in untreated mice.

The treatment reduced cancer deaths, fibrosis, chronic inflammation, and poor metabolism, with minimal side effects.

Professor Stuart Cook highlighted the potential for similar effects in humans, stating, "The treated mice had fewer cancers and were free from the usual signs of ageing and frailty."

This research, though conducted in mice, opens possibilities for extending healthy ageing in humans.