Could aging become old hat?
Research restores youth to mice
Harvard scientists have discovered a groundbreaking enzyme elixir that slows and could potentially reverse aging in mice — and they say they’re ready to test it in humans soon.
“We have found a reason why DNA repair goes down as we get older, and a way to reverse it,” said Harvard geneticist David Sinclair, one of the head researchers. “We’ve tested it on old mice, and we’re going to be doing a clinical trial in humans in the first half of this year.”
Sinclair’s paper, out today in the journal Science, is the culmination of six years worth of research studying DNA damage — one process that causes the wear and tear of aging.
Sinclair and his team found that one of the most abundant proteins in humans, called DBC1, binds to the body’s protein that’s
in charge of mending damaged DNA, interfering with its effectiveness.
Scientists also found that the presence of a molecule called NAD helps prevent the meddling protein from hindering cell repair. The presence of NAD decreases as the body ages.
But after one week of drinking from a fountain of youth of sorts — water filled with a NAD-boosting enzyme — old mice showed levels of NAD seen in younger mice, and a decline in DNA damage.
“You could see the older mice were showing signs of becoming more youthful,” Sinclair said.
Though this study did not test life-lengthening effects, a research group out of Switzerland found that a similar enzyme extended the lives of mice by 15 percent.
Sinclair’s work could have implications that extend beyond disease prevention — and into deep space. Astronauts experience accelerated aging after exposure to cosmic radiation, even on short trips. A solution could allow for longer missions to space.
Sinclair won NASA’s iTech competition last December.
He is part of a growing movement to convince federal health officials that aging should be officially classified as a disease, not an inevitable and accepted process.
That sea change would encourage more research such as his study, Sinclair said, and it could expand into an all-encompassing approach to age-related illnesses including Alzheimer’s disease and coronary artery disease.
“There definitely is a push,” Sinclair said. “I’ve always argued that aging is clearly something negative that happens to people over time, which is the definition of a disease.”
“The reason it doesn’t qualify is because it happens to the majority of the people in the population,” he said.
But advocates for research on age-related diseases such as Alzheimer’s worry the growing interest in these broad antidotes could end up slowing progress on their fronts.
“Research for Alzheimer’s disease has been dramatically underfunded,” said Susan Antkowiak, vice president of programs and services for the Alzheimer’s Association. “We’d be concerned about the potential for Alzheimer’s disease to be lost in the shuffle here.”
The FDA appears to be taking a wait-and-see stance, noting “increased interest among members of the scientific community in studies to better understand processes related to aging and factors that might drive longevity.”
But the agency added, “We have not received an application for a product that specifically looks to treat aging as disease.”
Studies similar to Sinclair’s show that the cause is gaining momentum, said Marc Hodosh, a local entrepreneur and cocreator of TEDMED, the health edition of the TED conference.
Hodosh is working with entertainment executives on ways to depict work like Sinclair’s more realistically.
“It’s always been like false hope, or snake oil, because no one ever believed we could do something like this,” Hodosh said. “Hollywood itself has never portrayed it in a realistic way.”
But, he said, “very notable, reputable places now are coming out with this research. That alone shows there’s a new effort.”