Pill can turn back clock

A DRUG that could reverse the ageing process and make space travel possible will be trialled on humans this year and could be on the market in 2020.

Australian scientists have found a vitamin, nicotinamide mononucleotide, that helps cells repair DNA damage and it’s so good they are taking the pill themselves.

Middle-aged mice given the vitamin lived 20 per cent longer and were able to run faster.

“The cells of the old mice were indistinguishable from the young mice, after just one week of treatment,” said Professor David Sinclair of UNSW School of Medical Sciences and Harvard Medical School Boston.

“This is the closest we are to a safe and effective anti-ageing drug that’s perhaps only three to five years away from being on the market if the trials go well.” In a paper published in Science today, the researchers identify a critical step in the molecular process that allows cells to repair damaged DNA.

Research by Prof Sinclair and Dr Lindsay Wu into the substance won NASA’s iTech competition in December last year because of its potential use in the planned 2025 mission to Mars.

Accelerated ageing caused by cosmic radiation, mental impairment and increased risk of cancer are pitfalls of space travel. On a trip to Mars 5 per cent of the astronauts’ cells will die affecting their mental and physical capacity.

It is hoped this vitamin might be able to reverse that damage, says Dr Wu.

Back on Earth the medicine promises to help every human defy the ageing process and stay healthy and it has potential to overcome the terrible side effects of cancer radiotherapy and chemotherapy.

It’s also been found to treat Type 2 diabetes and restore vision following eye damage in animals.

A separate Japanese study showed mice given NMN gained less weight with ageing even when they consumed more food perhaps because their boosted metabolism used more energy.

Dr Wu, aged 33, is not old but says he has been taking the vitamin pill for a year.

“I am using it, I’m not supposed to take it but I feel just fine, there are no side effects,” he said.

“I take it out of intellectual curiosity.”

However, he said the general population should not use it until it has been properly tested in clinical trials.

And when clinical trials are complete it won’t be on the market to treat ageing, instead it is likely to be used as a therapy to treat the side effects of cancer radiotherapy.

“The big problem is that regulatory authorities don’t recognise ageing as a disease,” he says.