Earlier this week Insilico Medicine reported a Nature Biotechnology study of rentosertib, a drug for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, or IPF. IPF is a scarring lung disease that usually begins around age sixty-five and steadily reduces breathing capacity. The company said the drug was developed with generative artificial intelligence (AI). In human tests, some age-related protein trends appeared to move backward - the Nature Biotechnology study revealed a consistent reduction in biological age after Rentosertib dosage, across six independent biological aging clocks.
Insilico Medicine has now given the first dose of rentosertib to a patient in the GENESIS-IPF-3 clinical trial. Phase III is a large, late test of benefit and safety. About 320 people with IPF will take the pill or a placebo once a day for 52 weeks at 47 hospitals in China. Neither patients nor doctors will know who received which. The main measure is yearly change in forced vital capacity, how much air someone can blow out after a full breath. The drug is not approved. A path to approval, if the larger trial succeeds, could take three to four years.
"I believe Rentosertib will be transformative to patient care in the field of IPF, and AI has enabled this breakthrough with higher speed and reduced cost, which could make a lot of difference in the future of drug discovery," said a senior VP of Insilico Medicine.
A possible age signal, still unproven
The possible rejuvenation signal is not proof that the drug reverses aging, but has been covered by high-profile media. A New York Times headline notes that the AI-generated drug “could slow aging” (open copy). A longevity expert told The New York Times: “This is the first study that shows, very clearly, that predicted biological age can be reduced.” He acknowledged, however, that the study was far from conclusive,
Another longevity expert told The New York Times that the drug “looks encouraging” but that there is still no definitive trial. On his own X feed he called rentosertib “the first drug in development… to show slowing of proteomic aging clocks, 6 of 6, in a small trial.”