{"id":206648,"date":"2026-03-16T10:39:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T10:39:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/206648\/"},"modified":"2026-03-16T10:39:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T10:39:12","slug":"ut-health-to-launch-large-trial-testing-potential-longevity-drugs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/206648\/","title":{"rendered":"UT Health to launch large trial testing potential longevity drugs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Scientists\u2019 understanding of the biology of aging has progressed rapidly<\/a> in the last three decades, starting with discoveries in the 1990s that certain genetic mutations dramatically extended the lifespan of laboratory animals.<\/p>\n

Researchers have since been searching for drugs that can slow the progression of natural aging and the onset of age-related diseases in humans. Although several longevity drug candidates have been identified, none have yet been proven in large human trials designed specifically to slow biological aging.<\/p>\n

Now, researchers at UT Health San Antonio are preparing one of the largest human trials aimed at testing whether three existing drugs \u2014 rapamycin, semaglutide and dapagliflozin \u2014 might slow some of the biological processes behind aging.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the culmination of 50 years\u2019 worth of aging research at UT Health San Antonio,\u201d said Dr. Elena Volpi, director of UT Health San Antonio\u2019s Sam and Ann Barshop Institute for Longevity and Aging Studies, and lead author of the study.<\/p>\n

The study, which the researchers have coined the \u201cVITAL-H\u201d trial, has $38 million in federal contract support behind it. Expected to start later this year or earlier next year, the VITAL-H trial is the largest study the university\u2019s aging institute has led, Volpi said.<\/p>\n

Besides being a \u201cfirst-of-its-kind study,\u201d Volpi said, it\u2019s also notable that such a significant trial is taking place locally in a Hispanic population that has historically been underrepresented in research.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will try to get deep into South Texas, because we want to give an opportunity to people who cannot normally participate in clinical trials to actually participate,\u201d Volpi said. \u201cBecause we think it is important that everyone has a chance.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Dr. Elena Volpi, director of the Sam and Ann Barshop Institute for Longevity and Aging Studies. Credit: Vincent Reyna for the San Antonio Report<\/p>\n

The Barshop institute is home to 27 core faculty members and over 100 research personnel spanning a range of disciplines from molecular biology and neuroscience to pharmacology and drug discovery, and much more.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Founded in 1991 as the Aging Research and Education Center, the Barshop Institute\u2019s roots date back to 1975, when Dr. Ed Masoro<\/a> became one of the first scientists to study longevity interventions in lab mice. It became the Barshop Institute in 2001 following a large donation from Sam and Ann Barshop.<\/p>\n

The search for drugs that might slow aging<\/p>\n

The drugs being tested in the VITAL-H trial come out of decades of research into the biological drivers of aging.<\/p>\n

Aging remains the most prominent risk factor for chronic diseases like cardiovascular disease, neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer\u2019s, cancer and diabetes, even as life expectancy has increased to nearly 80 years old in the U.S.<\/p>\n

Since around 2013, scientists have increasingly organized these biological processes into a framework known as the \u201challmarks of aging,\u201d helping researchers understand how our bodies gradually lose cognitive and physical function, and what interventions might slow that process.<\/p>\n

\u201cOver the past 50 years, there\u2019s been an incredible increase in lifespan worldwide,\u201d Volpi said. \u201cBut really the age of onset of the chronic diseases that will eventually debilitate us \u2026 hasn\u2019t really changed.\u201d<\/p>\n

How three existing drugs became longevity candidates<\/p>\n

In 2009, researchers, including several with the Barshop Institute, found that low doses of rapamycin \u2014 approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 1999 as an immune system suppressant \u2014 increased the lifespan of laboratory mice, with follow-up studies replicating those findings.<\/p>\n

The landmark study<\/a> was one of the first major studies showing that a drug could extend lifespan in mammals. Since then, rapamycin has been chief among the most promising and talked about anti-aging drug candidates.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But because lifespan extension has largely been observed only in animal models, scientists remain uncertain whether those benefits will translate to humans.<\/p>\n

UT Health researchers also tested rapamycin on marmosets<\/a> \u2014 small monkeys used in longevity research and kept by the university and Texas Biomedical Research Institute. The benefits, published in a 2019 paper<\/a>, were not as robust as some researchers had expected, though the medication was generally safe.<\/p>\n

\"\"Texas Biomedical Research Institute\u2019s Dr. Corinna Ross holds an adult marmoset. Credit: Courtesy \/ Texas Biomedical Research Institute<\/p>\n

More recently, a class of drugs known as GLP-1 agonists have earned a swarm of attention from scientists and the public. Semaglutide, known under brand names Ozempic, Wegovy and Rybelsus, has boomed in popularity in recent years for its weight loss effects.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Researchers have continued to uncover a diverse range of benefits besides glucose control and weight loss associated with semaglutide and other GLP-1 drugs, including reducing the risk of heart attacks and strokes, treating obstructive sleep apnea, fatty liver disease and chronic kidney disease.<\/p>\n

This has led many in the research community to suggest a clinical trial designed specifically to test the drugs on healthy individuals as potential longevity candidates.<\/p>\n

The last, and least well known drug in the VITAL-H trial is dapagliflozin, which belongs to a class of drugs known as sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 inhibitors used to treat diabetes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

These drugs help regulate blood sugar by fostering glucose elimination through urine, promoting metabolic health. They have also been found to impact certain pathways that influence aging, by lowering low-grade inflammation, a driver of aging commonly referred to as \u201cinflammaging<\/a>.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Beyond lifespan<\/p>\n

The VITAL-H study will be a large clinical trial with $38 million in federal support from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services\u2019 Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H), which awarded UT Health one of the largest contracts in its latest funding round.<\/p>\n

UT Health will work closely with Stanford University, the Buck Institute for Research on Aging and Columbia University on the study.<\/p>\n

The trial will take place over three years, plus an additional six months of follow-up once participants stop taking the medications. It will include over 700 participants from South Texas, potentially closer to 1,000, aged 60 to 65 years old and in relatively good health.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the big deals here will be not just to recruit all the patients, it will be to also retain them over the entirety of the study,\u201d Volpi said. \u201cWe have been given a tall order by ARPA-H to retain at least 85% of the participants. We need to really work hard on ways [to keep them]. Otherwise we\u2019re not going to have enough power to see differences.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Dr. Dean Kellogg Jr. demonstrates how the team measures carbon and oxygen exchange, and how the hearts and lungs are functioning at VO2 peak. Credit: Vincent Reyna for the San Antonio Report<\/p>\n

Because measuring lifespan in humans would take decades, researchers will instead track changes in biological markers of aging and overall health.<\/p>\n

Participants will be bucketed into four groups: rapamycin, semaglutide, dapagliflozin and a placebo group. They will wear Oura rings, a wearable health tracker that gathers a range of health data, in addition to check-ins every few months to gather other health data and fill out surveys.<\/p>\n

Researchers will also track a newer measure of aging known as \u201cintrinsic capacity,\u201d developed by the World Health Organization, which looks at physical and mental abilities such as strength, sleep, nutrition, cardiovascular health, sensory function and cognition.<\/p>\n

The new measure places a greater emphasis on health span, the number of years lived in relatively good health, rather than simply living longer.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we\u2019re looking for is for people to gain more years of health,\u201d Volpi said. \u201cOur hope is that at least one of these drugs will show an impact on slowing down the decline in intrinsic capacity that occurs with aging. We want to slow it down so that people can gain more years of healthy living, healthy life.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to start the declining process as late as possible to compress the decline towards the end of life so that we can live and work and be happy and do whatever we want to do for as long as we can.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Dr. Elena Volpi and her team at the Sam and Ann Barshop Institute for Longevity and Aging Studies. Credit: Vincent Reyna for the San Antonio Report<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Scientists\u2019 understanding of the biology of aging has progressed rapidly in the last three decades, starting with discoveries…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":206649,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[45942,72708,55083,584,72710,72711,82,84,83,72712,1474,92,3028,33812,17975,81144,3440],"class_list":["post-206648","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-aging-and-longevity","tag-dr-elena-volpi","tag-glp-1-drugs","tag-health","tag-rapamycin","tag-sam-and-ann-barshop-institute-for-longevity-and-aging-studies","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news","tag-semaglutide","tag-south-texas","tag-top-story","tag-typedaily","tag-u-s-department-of-health-and-human-services","tag-ut-health-san-antonio","tag-vital-h","tag-wc-1000-1500"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206648","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=206648"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206648\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/206649"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206648"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206648"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206648"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}