Your body’s cells are aging right now, making you more susceptible to disease and injury that can shorten your lifespan. But what if science could reverse that decline?

Researchers say they’ve found a way to stop the buildup of compounds that make us vulnerable to harmful inflammation. The key is an enzyme.

The enzyme - a protein that helps speed up chemical reactions in the body - works to clear advanced glycation end products, or AGEs, from human tissue.

AGEs are compounds that build up in tissue and are hallmarks of aging. Cleansing AGEs can repair tissue and has the potential to help cells act younger.

“It’s a small step in this bigger direction, because aging is very complicated,” Aaron Cravens, a founder and chief executive of San Francisco biotech company Revel Pharmaceuticals, which developed the new enzyme, told The New York Times earlier this month.

“It’s the first time, I think, that anyone in the field has shown at the structural level that you can actually reverse some of these changes,” Cravens, the lead author of the study announcing the findings, said.

To find the enzyme, the team used artificial intelligence, analyzing DNA in more than 50,000 microbes to pick candidates that could clear AGEs from human tissue.

The enzyme, known as CMLase, was then tested on donated human skin and arterial tissue.

That’s how the scientists found it was able to reduce levels of AGEs for 75-year-old human skin back to that of a 31-year-old.

"What we've shown is that [AGE] damage in human tissue can, in fact, be reversed under laboratory conditions,” Cravens explained in a statement.

“More work is needed, but these results alter the starting assumption for how we think about this fundamental aspect of the aging process,” he said.

Future tests are expected to be conducted to help treat inflammatory eye disease, including several related to diabetes, Cravens told The Times.

The findings build on previous research, including some recent research on tissue regeneration.

Improving the quality of aging - which occurs from the time we are conceived but happens at different rates for different people - could not only lead to longer lives, but reduced medical expenditures, the American Association of Retired Persons says.

Researchers say drugs that may be able to do that are already on the market.

Popular GLP-1 weight loss drugs taken by millions of Americans may be reprogramming cells to boost immune health and reduce inflammation, slowing the body’s decline at a cellular level, a June study from the University of California at San Diego showed.

But lifestyle factors such as diet and exercise, or getting enough vitamin B12, are also incredibly important in preventing inflammation and other risk factors.