Alzheimer’s disease is caused by amyloid plaques – clusters of misfolded proteins – in the brain. Rapamycin could, it’s hoped, prevent such plaques from forming
SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY, GETTY IMAGES
Are you, or is someone you know, ageing? Of course you are: though a handful of wellness influencers claim otherwise, the processes of biological ageing are ticking along within us all. But there’s good news – scientists now understand enough about those processes that we may one day be able to slow them down, or even reverse them. And that day might arrive sooner than you think.
While you should take the claims of social media biohackers with a very large pinch of salt, longevity science is beginning to uncover the mechanisms that make us grow old. It goes far beyond vanity – such scientists aren’t just trying to create new anti-ageing skin creams to smooth fine lines and wrinkles, but real anti-ageing medicines that will slow the advance of those biological processes happening inside all of us.