New drug extends animal lifespan by 25% as revolutionary agent tested on 'supermodel granny' lab mice

Scientists tested an anti-aging drug that has significantly extended the lifespan of laboratory mice by 25 percent.

The laboratory mice, also known as "supermodel grannies," are the main subjects of testing in the lab because of their youthful appearance. It is a test designed to better understand if human lifespans can be extended.

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The mice are considered by researchers to be more "healthier, stronger and developed fewer cancers than their unmedicated peers," according to BBC.

To test out the drug, which plays a role in attacking the interleukin-11 protein, researchers from the MRC Laboratory of Medical Science, Imperial College London and Duke-NUS Medical School in Singapore, performed two experiments.

The first experiment involved a genetically engineered mice that is unable to produce interleukin-11, a protein that plays a role in aging, while the second involves a 75-week-old mice that will be given the drug to get rid of interleukin-11 from their bodies.

The 75-week-old mice is roughly the same age as a 55-year-old person.

The results, which were published in the science journal Nature, found that lifespans of the mice are able to increase by 20 to 25 percent on average depending on the sex of the mice.

Male mice from the age of 75 weeks were able to extend their lifespan by 22.5 percent, while females extend theirs by 25 percent after taking the drug.

Professor Stuart Cook, one of the researchers, told the BBC that the trials has not been completed ahead of human trials but the data suggested the drug was safe to take

"I try not to get too excited, for the reasons you say, is it too good to be true?" Cook said. "There's lots of snake oil out there, so I try to stick to the data and they are the strongest out there."

"Would you want to live from the age of 40, half-starved, have a completely unpleasant life, if you're going to live another five years at the end? I wouldn't."