Treating Ageing: A Review

Natural lifespan is as long as it is necessary to allow an organism to reproduce, and die accidentally. In nature, no animal lives to old age. Among humans and domesticated animals, ageing is a natural progression in life. According to gerontology, non-repaired molecular damage and accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) cause ageing. Knowing ageing pathology means that there are now ways to manage molecular damage and slow down or limit ageing, pharmacologically. TOR is a conserved kinase that regulates cell growth and metabolism in response to environmental cues. In the post-development and post-reproduction period of the human lifespan, TOR accelerates disease and ageing. It has been seen that many well-known established drugs already in use can inhibit the TOR pathway and can slow down ageing as well as prevent or ameliorate age related diseases. Whether ageing should be treated pharmacologically or not may still be debated, but the availability of drugs means that we need to address the issue of ageing management sensibly, ethically and equitably.