Finally, an Anti-Aging Drug?

Few years ago, researchers have found that a type of enzymes named sirtuins are able to dramatically prolong the life of various organisms like yeast, worms, and flies.

They are now wondering if these enzymes could impede age connected metabolic conditions, like obesity and type II diabetes.

Some naturally occurring compounds were found to turn on sirtuins, like for example a chemical found in the red wine, named resveratrol.

The problem is that a person should drink about two cases of wine daily to ingest an effective dose of resveratrol.

This cannot be done, but researchers and biotechnology companies are now searching for a medicine that cold increase sirtuin activity, with enormous public-health and economic benefits.

A new research at The Wistar Institute has found a different approach for booming the activity of the anti-aging sirtuins.

The research team proved that a common chemical, known as niacin or vitamin B3, attaches to a specific locus on the sirtuin molecule to shut down its activity.

Thus, a compound stopping a derived of the niacin, named nicotinamide, from attaching to the sirtuins would increase sirtuins' activity.

In fact, such a drug would eliminate the inhibitory effect of nicotinamide.

"Our findings suggest a new avenue for designing sirtuin-activating drugs," said Dr. Ronen Marmorstein, senior author and a professor in the Gene Expression and Regulation Program at Wistar.

"The jury is still out as to whether a drug of this kind might result in longer life in humans, but I'm equally excited by the possibility that such interventions might help counteract age-related health problems like obesity and type II diabetes."

"The nicotinamide binding site may be a particularly attractive drug target for other reasons too. Many drugs have unwanted side effects because in addition to the intended target, the drugs also hit other biologically active molecules that you don't want to affect," he said.

"This nicotinamide-binding site we've identified appears to be unique to the sirtuins, so that if we're able to design a molecule to target it, it should be very specific for these sirtuin molecules."

The investigations on sirtuins are also connected to many previous ones linking low calorie diets and longevity.

"People have known for some time that low-calorie diets result in life extension in many organisms, but they didn't know why," he says.

"Recent research has shown that the connection works at least in part through these sirtuin molecules."