Researchers at Harvard Medical School will begin trials of a new drug that has been proven to reverse aging in mice.
Harvard Medical School’s Professor David Sinclair has discovered a molecule that, when consumed, has been shown to reverse the organ degradation that comes with growing older. In previous tests, the organs of lab mice were “rejuvenated,” and the mice were able to run farther “within a week.”
The molecule has a very simple job: it breaks apart two proteins locked in a seemingly negative alliance. The first protein is responsible for helping to repair and regenerate our organs when we’re young. The second, a troublesome companion that locks onto the first like a ball and chain, preventing it from efficiently doing its job. The molecule in question simply inserts itself between them, then “pops them apart,” enabling the first protein to operate without a handicap.
“What we are talking about here is not keeping people in nursing homes for longer, but keeping them out of nursing homes and allowing people in their 80s and 90s to play tennis and hang out with their grandchildren,” Professor Sinclair said. He claims that it is the damage to our DNA caused by the aging process that reduces our capacity for such activities as we age, and hopes that this unique molecule will enable our bodies to experience uninhibited self-renewal.
The drug holds a lot of promise for the treatment of age-related diseases, such as diabetes. But according to Professor Sinclair, that’s far from the only benefit: “It won’t just help your diabetes. As a side effect it will prevent cancer, and it will improve your memory, and you will have more energy as well.”
Studies on the safety of this molecular Fountain of Youth will begin within the next couple of weeks. After that, time — as always — will be as much our enemy as our friend, as we wait to see whether Sinclair’s research can revolutionize the way we think about aging.
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