According to the study, published in the journal Science, by targeting a single, anti-ageing enzyme in the body, a drug is able to look after your wellbeing by preventing age-related diseases. Through a common mechanism, all of the 117 drugs tested work on the single enzyme, meaning that a whole new viable class of anti-ageing drugs could ultimately prevent cancer, Alzheimer’s disease and type 2 diabetes.
Lead author of the paper, Professor David Sinclair, from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) Medicine, explained, ‘Ultimately, these drugs would treat one disease, but unlike drugs of today, they would prevent 20 others. In effect, they would slow aging.’ You can naturally switch on the target enzyme, SIRT1, with calorie restriction and exercise, but it can also be enhanced through activators.
The most common activator that naturally switches on SIRT1 is resveratrol, which is found in small quantities in red wine, but synthetic activators that are currently being developed exhibit much stronger activity. The researchers found that overweight mice who were given synthetic resveratrol were able to run twice as far as slim mice and they lived 15% longer.
In a statement, Sinclair said, ‘Now we are looking at whether there are benefits for those who are already healthy. Things there are also looking promising. We’re finding that ageing isn’t the irreversible affliction that we thought it was. Some of us could live to 150, but we won’t get there without more research.’ He noted that, ‘In the history of pharmaceuticals, there has never been a drug that tweaks an enzyme to make it run faster.’
Pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline bought the technology in 2008, and of the four thousand synthetic activators currently being developed, the best three are now being used in human trials. Sinclair suggested that the first therapeutic to be marketed will be for diabetes, but warned, ‘our drugs can mimic the benefits of diet and exercise, but there is no impact on weight.’ However, he did assert that the drug could one day be taken as a preventative.