Better Life Through Science - The End Of Ageing

I've been following the discovery of the role of the SIRT1 protein in mammalian longevity and the ability of the substance Resveratrol to activate SIRT1's role in gene suppression. SIRT1 has also been shown to activate in calorie restricted rats, leading to longer life spans.

New research is showing that SIRT1 serves a dual role, both as a gene suppressor and also in DNA repair. As we get older, the research is showing the protein ignores it's suppressing role as we age.

This article in the New Scientist notes;

This raises the hope that, if gene-suppressing proteins become similarly overworked in ageing people, they could become prime targets for drugs to keep us young.

This possibility is boosted by the team's finding that mice engineered to over-express the gene for SIRT1 were better at repairing DNA, more resistant to cancer, and maintained a more youthful pattern of gene expression.

"The most exciting thing is that this work may unify in a single molecular pathway what we know about ageing in different organisms such as yeast and mammals," says Maria Blasco of the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre in Madrid, who works on mechanisms of cellular ageing.

"It opens up the possibility of restoring youth in the elderly by re-establishing a useful pattern of gene expression," adds Sinclair.

There are several organizations promoting research into longevity. One of them is the Methuselah Foundation, which funds through it's SENS research fund which makes direct funding of research and it's Mprize offered to research groups who extend the lifespan mice past the present record.