The quest for the proverbial fountain of youth continues.

A team of researchers from the MRC Laboratory of Medical Science, Imperial College London and Duke-NUS Medical School in Singapore are testing a drug that inhibits a protein called interleukin-11.

The amount of the protein in the human body increases and contributes to higher levels of inflammation as we get older, BBC reports.

Old mice usually die of cancer but the team’s experiment that genetically engineered rodents to not produce their own interleukin-11 prevented the disease and allowed the animals to live 20 to 25 percent longer. Furthermore, the mice were leaner and had healthier fur.

Another experiment involved regularly giving old mice the drug which made them healthier, stronger and develop fewer cancers than their unmedicated peers, according to BBC.

The results of both experiments were published in the journal Nature.

The drug, a manufactured antibody that attacks interleukin-11, is now being tested in patients with lung fibrosis or scarring to see if it can also slow human aging, the report said.

Meanwhile, an old drinking fountain in the middle of downtown Punta Gorda in Florida, USA has been dubbed the “Fountain of Youth” by locals over the years, cli korlando.com reports.

Citing old newspaper articles, the report said locals claimed the fountain kept them young and energized. People had to wait in lines to get a drink from it.

The fountain still works today but there is a sign on it from the Florida Department of Health warning that the water from the well is radioactive.

US Geological Survey researcher Zoltan Szabo downplayed the risk, however, saying the water is safe even if a drinker drank it for 70 years.

NPR (National Public Radio) reported the well water might contain the compound magnesium sulfate that can actually lower the risk of cardiovascular diseases and improve respiratory health.

Nevertheless, people may be turned off by the bad smell of the water caused by magnesium sulfate.