Methodology | TeloiX

Evidence tiers

Evidence is shown on a visible seven-tier scale (1 = healthy-aging human lifespan RCT, down to 7 = in vitro/mechanism) and is never collapsed into a single marketing score. Tier 1 is empty on this site by design: no telomere intervention has a healthy-aging lifespan RCT. Note the deliberate distinction between tier 2 (a human clinical-outcome RCT in a disease population, e.g. danazol or imetelstat) and a healthy-aging lifespan result — the former is real and important, but it is disease treatment, not evidence of an anti-aging effect. Tier 3 (telomere-length / telomerase-activity biomarker RCTs, e.g. TA-65) sits below that, because a biomarker change is not a clinical outcome.

Why telomere length is a contested biomarker

Telomere length is measured by several methods (qPCR, Flow-FISH, Southern/TRF) that do not always agree, varies between tissues and cell types, and associates with aging and mortality only modestly and inconsistently across cohorts. A longer measured telomere is not straightforwardly "healthier," and lengthening telomeres in a trial does not establish a slowing of human aging. Every page states this so a telomere-length result is never read as a longevity outcome.

The telomerase–cancer paradox

Telomerase is silenced in most human somatic cells and reactivated in the large majority of cancers, so pharmacologically activating it raises an unresolved cancer-risk question. The clearest illustration is that the only FDA-approved telomerase drug — imetelstat (RYTELO, 2024) — inhibits telomerase to treat lower-risk MDS. TeloiX frames imetelstat as the honesty foil: it points the opposite direction from the anti-aging "activation" narrative.

Honesty flag

Each intervention carries a flag derived by string classification of its human-evidence field: ● available is reserved for a genuine healthy-aging human lifespan RCT; ▲ qualified marks human data that is telomere-length / telomerase-activity biomarker, disease-outcome, pilot, observational, or (for imetelstat) an approved telomerase inhibitor — i.e. not a healthy-aging lifespan RCT; ○ none marks animal/preclinical-only, thin, or mechanism nodes. The classifier generalizes across the longevity cluster with zero data fabrication.

Unverified identifiers

Journal, volume, and DOI were confirmed via Crossref, and trial design/status via the ClinicalTrials.gov v2 API where an NCT was resolvable. Where an exact NCT/PMID/DOI could not be confirmed against the primary record at build time, the record is tagged needs_primary_fulltext and no identifier is invented. (For example, a claimed 2025 TA-65 meta-analysis is carried with its figures marked unverified until the primary record is confirmed.) These are confirmed against the primary record before deployment.