A change is needed in the landscape of preclinical models to test drugs that target aging

Efficient and reproducible preclinical models for testing drugs or drug combinations that target aging are vital to develop a pipeline that results in a predictable outcome for geroscience research and geriatric medicine. Lifespan as a readout test in laboratory mice has been successful in identifying several drugs that robustly enhance healthy aging, and has provided impactful information for moving to clinical studies. However, it is a costly and time consuming process (about three years), and poorly designed to test drug combinations. Therefore, a more efficient pipeline is needed that would provide an increased number of drugs or drug combinations with promising and predictable outcomes for first in human studies in a shorter time frame. This editorial discusses an alternate system involving prescreening in an invertebrate model (the domestic house cricket) followed by short term cross sectional testing in aging mice. The time frame is about six months, and the system is simple enough to allow testing of multiple drugs concurrently. The cricket to mouse pipeline provides a logical and preclinical translational approach to identify drugs that have the potential to enhance human health at later ages of life.