This would make Qin Shi Huang, the first Emperor of China, a transhumanist. His fear of death had him seeking an immortality potion. This was about 2200 years ago. But this wasn't an "-ism" – just instinct, as you say.
>The NIA Interventions Testing Program (ITP) has to date reported on four drugs with consistent major effects on mouse lifespan in one or both sexes and found evidence for significant but less dramatic effect of four other drugs.
>Rapamycin, started at 9 months of age, was found to increase median lifespan by as much as 26% in females and 23% in males, and to retard many aspects of age‐related pathological change (Harrison et al., 2009; Miller et al., 2014). Surprisingly, similarly strong lifespan effects were seen even in mice not given rapamycin until 20 months of age (Harrison et al., 2009).
>Acarbose can lead to an increase of 22% in median lifespan in male mice, and to a significant, but smaller, 5% increase in female mice (Harrison, 2014; Strong, 2016). Both rapamycin and acarbose improve longevity in the oldest age‐groups, as indicated by a statistical test that compares the proportion of control and drug‐treated mice surviving to the 90th percentile age of the joint distribution, the Wang/Allison test (Wang, Li, Redden, Weindruch, & Allison, 2004). Acarbose produces significant longevity increases, including survival to the 90th percentile, in both sexes, when started as late as 16 months of age (Strong, 2016).
>A third drug, 17‐α‐estradiol (17aE2), a nonfeminizing congener of the well‐known estrogen 17‐β‐estradiol, increases lifespan of male mice by 19% (Harrison, 2014; Strong, 2016) and has a significant effect on survival to the 90th percentile age, but has no significant effect on female mice. Male mice given 17aE2 live significantly longer than female mice whether or not the females have been exposed to 17aE2.
>Lastly, NDGA (nordihydroguaiaretic acid) has been shown to increase lifespan of male mice only, with an increase of 12% in median in two independent experimental groups (Strong, 2016; Strong et al., 2008), without a significant effect in female mice. Nordihydroguaiaretic acid, at the doses used, did not lead to significant changes in survival to the 90th percentile age.
This is not an exhaustive list, for an expanded list of positive findings read an infobox on NIA ITP trials in [2] and read [3].
So, it's a well-replicated fact that there are substances delaying aging in mice, the question is - are humans really that different kind of mammal that none of these substances works on us, at least with the effect in the same direction?
We'll see the answer this decade.
1. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6516426/