AI-designed drug shows signs of reversing biological aging

The new analysis builds on a previous trial of rentosertib in patients with IPF, where improved lung function was observed. The researchers collected blood samples during that trial and later applied six independent aging clocks to the data. All six models, which share neither features nor training data, predicted a lower biological age for treated patients, with the strongest effect seen at week 4 in the 30 mg twice-daily group.

The fact that the dose that helped the lungs most (60 mg once daily) differed from the one that cut predicted biological age the most (30 mg twice daily) suggests an effect at least partly independent of lung function. Additionally, compared against more than 55,000 profiles from the UK Biobank, the drug appeared to reverse changes typically associated with aging. However, these correlations are not proof, as the company itself notes.

The stakes are high for Insilico, which aims to speed up drug development with generative AI and has developed at least 28 drug candidates as of March 2026. Rentosertib is now in a Phase III trial for IPF, and if the aging findings hold up in larger studies, they could open a new avenue for longevity treatments. Yet the sample size is small, and experts like Eric Topol and Vadim Gladyshev stress that definitive trials, especially in healthy people, are still missing.