Off topic - but interesting

[Guest guest]

F.Y.I.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/09/health/research/09aging.html?ref=health

Antibiotic Delayed Aging in Experiments With Mice

By NICHOLAS WADE

Published: July 8, 2009

A new star has appeared in the field of drugs that delay aging in laboratory

animals, and are therefore candidates for doing the same in people.

The drug is an antibiotic, rapamycin, already in use for suppressing the immune

system in transplant patients and for treating certain cancers.

Rapamycin treatment had the remarkable effect of extending life even though it

was not started in the right dose until the mice had lived 600 days — equivalent

to a person at age 60. Most interventions that prolong life in mice, including a

very low-calorie diet, need to be started early in life to show any effect.

Experts warn that this should not be tried at home. No one knows yet if

rapamycin slows aging in people or at what dose it might be effective. And any

drug that suppresses the immune system is not to be trifled with.

The finding was reported online Wednesday in Nature by researchers at three

institutions working in parallel. The teams were led by E. on of the

Laboratory, a mouse-breeding powerhouse in Bar Harbor, Me.; A.

of the University of Michigan; and Randy Strong of the University of

Texas Health Science Center.

The researchers do not know how rapamycin secures its anti-aging effect. It

could be just halting tumors rather than delaying the aging process in general.

The three teams were sponsored by the National Institute of Aging as part of a

program to test possible anti-aging drugs much more rigorously.

" One of the nasty secrets of the field is that most mouse longevity experiments

are done only once in one lab on one genetic background, " said Austad, an

expert on aging at the University of Texas Health Science Center, who was not

involved in the research.

The National Institute of Aging program includes a test of two doses of

resveratrol, the ingredient of red wine that is thought to mimic the effects of

caloric restriction on longevity. The results have not been published, but

Christoph Westphal, chief executive of Sirtris, a company exploring the health

effects of resveratrol and similar chemicals, said the tests " are seeing quite

modest effects of resveratrol. "

The effectiveness of rapamycin in extending the life of elderly mice was

discovered by accident. The researchers found that the mice fed rapamycin were

not getting the proper dose in their bloodstream. They reformulated the drug in

the form of capsules that fed slow doses to the intestine, but by that time the

mice were elderly. Nonetheless, life span increased by 14 percent in the females

and 9 percent in the males.

" It's no longer irresponsible to say that following these up could lead to

medicines that increase human life span by 10, 20 or 30 percent, " Dr.

said.

It will be at least 10 years before matters are sorted out, he said, but, as of

right now, " I don't think there's any evidence for people that there's any drug

that can slow aging down. "

Comments? Other than to caution against doing this at home. :-)

a=z