AI‑designed TNIK inhibitor rentosertib lowered proteomic aging clock scores, showing a 3‑4‑year biological age reversal in a 12‑week phase 2a trial of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis patients.
A phase 2a trial published in Nature Biotechnology evaluated rentosertib, an AI‑designed TRAF2‑ and NCK‑interacting kinase (TNIK) inhibitor, in 42 participants with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis over 12 weeks. Blood samples were analyzed for more than 2,800 proteins and applied to six proteomic aging clocks, including ipfP3GPT, OrganAge, PAC, PAOPAC, and ProtAge. At the study’s end, all six clocks indicated a shift toward a younger predicted biological age, with a peak effect at week 4 showing an estimated 3‑4‑year reversal and up to six years in one clock.
Clinicians not involved in the study, such as Dr. Dung Trinh and Dr. Zeeshan Khan, described the findings as “exciting” but urged caution. They noted that the trial’s small size, short duration, and focus on a disease population mean the biomarker changes could reflect improvement in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis rather than true reversal of human aging, and emphasized that functional health outcomes remain the critical measure.
The drug’s development leveraged generative AI to identify TNIK as a target and design the inhibitor, a process reported to have moved from target discovery to a preclinical candidate in about 18 months. Experts highlighted AI’s potential to accelerate drug discovery while stressing that human researchers and rigorous clinical testing remain essential. The available reporting is limited to this early‑stage trial, and further studies are needed to confirm whether rentosertib can safely and consistently affect biological aging in broader populations.