There will probably be no need to undergo painful surgery or Botox injections to get rid of those wrinkles now that an Australian researches is one step closer to creating a drug that’s capable of fighting the aging process.
Professor David Sinclair of UNSW Medicine revealed that a single anti-aging enzyme in the body has the potential to prevent age-related diseases and extend lifespans.
He notes that the drug, unlike others, can prevent up to 20 other diseases, namely Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s, cancer and type-2 diabetes.
Professor Sinclair, who is also a geneticist with the Department of Pharmacology at UNSW, tested the drug on overweight mice that were given synthetic resveratrol. He found that they were able to run twice as far as slim mice and lived up to 15% longer.
“In the history of pharmaceuticals, there has never been a drug that tweaks an enzyme to make it run faster”.
Professor Sinclair hopes that these drugs can be taken orally one day as a preventative, and effectively as a pill that prevents illnesses associated with natural aging.
“Now we are looking at whether there are benefits for those who are already healthy. Things there are also looking promising,” said Professor Sinclair, who also heads the Lowy Cancer Research Centre’s Laboratory for aging Research at UNSW. [Source]
