Anti-aging medicine tested on mice

Ruslan Zemlyanikin, Compulenta, based on materials Wired.comThe new drug, SRT1720, developed at Sirtris Pharmaceuticals, activates an enzyme that regulates the functions of mitochondria — organelles that convert glucose into chemical energy.

Decreased mitochondrial activity leads to heart disease, diabetes, cancer, Alzheimer's disease and other diseases associated with aging.

The same enzyme is activated by resveratrol, which, according to test results, reduces the likelihood of age-related diseases in laboratory animals. Sirtris researchers last year found that synthetic drugs that activate this enzyme work at the cellular level like resveratrol. The latest tests took four months and showed that SRT1720 (and possibly a whole class of enzyme activators that will follow it) it really works.

"This shows that we can produce drugs that work better than resveratrol," says David Sinclair, co—founder of Sirtris. "Now we have human—engineered molecules. We're not talking about plant extracts anymore."

Rafael de Cabo, a gerontologist at the National Institute of Aging, who also studied the substance SRT1720, but did not participate in the tests, agrees with Sinclair, although he recommends not to rush to conclusions. "The transition from mice to humans is a long process," he said. — First we demonstrated the effect of the drug on individual cells, then on laboratory mice. The next step should be testing on primates or humans."

Resveratrol is currently undergoing clinical trials as a drug for diabetics. Next year, according to the management of Sirtris Pharmaceuticals, SRT1720 may join it. The side effects of the drug have not yet been fully identified, but the safety of resveratrol for animals and humans has already been proven. Since SRT1720 works at a dosage a thousand times lower than resveratrol, a synthetic drug may be safer.

The researchers also noticed that SRT1720 lowered the blood sugar levels of mice who were on fatty foods, but did not affect the blood sugar of those who were on a standard diet. This suggests that, most likely, SRT1720 will not lead to hypoglycemia — a dangerous decrease in blood sugar that often occurs when diabetics use standard medications.

If resveratrol and SRT1720 are approved for sale as medicines for diabetics, people will be able to use them to treat other diseases associated with age—related mitochondrial function, from cancer to Parkinson's disease.

Portal "Eternal youth" www.vechnayamolodost.ru05.11.2008