Tech-bio company Insilico said trial data for an experimental drug to treat an age-related lung disease suggests it could have anti-aging properties, boosting hopes for other emerging therapies discovered with artificial intelligence.

Insilico said the clinical evaluation of its idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis candidate, rentosertib, is the first featuring both an artificial intelligence-discovered target and an innovative AI-designed molecule in aging research.

Until now, longevity studies have typically focused on whether approved generic medicines can be repurposed to combat aging.

The preliminary study of rentosertib--which Insilico discovered and developed with its AI platforms--was published in peer-reviewed journal Nature Biotechnology using Phase 2a trial data. Researchers included Insilico and a team of scientists from institutions including Harvard, Peking University, Westlake University, Stanford University, RWTH Aachen University and the Broad Institute.

To be sure, promising findings in studies don't guarantee success in later trials with more participants. Novartis last week said a heart-disease drug didn't meet its primary endpoint in a Phase 3 study, while Novo Nordisk recently said one of its experimental medicines didn't reduce risk of heart attack or stroke in a late-stage clinical trial.

Phase 3--involving a larger group of patients--testing of rentosertib as an IPF treatment is underway in China. A 12-week Phase 2a trial for rentosertib last year suggested an improvement in lung function at certain doses for IPF patients.

Insilico said definitive confirmation of rentosertib's efficacy in slowing aging would require further studies, including in people without IPF or healthy volunteers.

Researchers in the newly-published study used Phase 2a data to evaluate rentosertib for anti-aging with six independently developed proteomic aging clocks--machine learning algorithms that analyze hundreds to thousands of proteins to establish a patient's biological age. Whereas chronological age measures years, biological age gauges how well cells and body organs are functioning to predict healthspan.

Using different methodologies and training criteria, all six clocks consistently indicated reductions in rentosertib-treated patients' biological ages, the study found.

The study also lays out a scalable blueprint for dual-purpose clinical trials that could surface anti-aging candidates years earlier than the traditional method of post-approval drug repurposing, Insilico said.

Most of Insilico's more than 40 drug programs target both aging and disease in a range of therapeutic areas.