24.03.2017

fand ich sehr interessant. :-))  Anja

 

Humans to test drug that reverses ageing

Oliver Moody, Science Correspondent

March 24 2017, 12:01am, The Times

A drug that reverses the equivalent of three decades of ageing in mice will be tested on humans this summer.

The naturally occurring compound, which encourages cells to repair their DNA, is being monitored by Nasa, which believes that the drug could be a way to get astronauts to Mars without them succumbing to cancer.

The scientists behind the discovery argue that the chemical, nicotinamide mononucleotide (NMN), can mimic the restorative effects of exercise, rejuvenating muscle tissue and other cells, but its effects fall off sharply as people and animals get older.

The hunt for an anti-ageing pill has yielded candidates that had great promise in single-celled organisms and rodents, but failed when given to people. But researchers say they have found a master mechanism governing so many of the processes implicated in longevity that it is the strongest hope yet.

David Sinclair, professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School and co-director of the Paul F. Glenn Center for the Biology of Aging in Boston, Massachusetts, said that NMN was the most impressive prospect he had seen.

Writing in the journal Science, he and his colleagues also said that they had found the first compelling answer to the mystery of why our bodies lose the ability to fix mutations in their genes as we age — together with a plausible solution to this problem. “It’s the best explanation we have now for why we lose the ability to repair DNA as we get older,” he said. “To me, the exciting thing is how simple and reversible it is.”

(...)

Cells can fix the tiny errors that crop up in our DNA by using a range of enzymes known as PARP1 and sirtuins. When we are young, these enzymes are guarded by a pair of NMN molecules yoked together into a larger structure called NAD. By the age of 50, however, we have typically lost half of our NAD and the DNA-repairing enzymes dwindle without its protection.

The NMN compound, taken daily as a 500mg tablet, is in a safety trial in Japan and will be tested on two dozen people in Boston within months. Professor Sinclair, who takes the pills himself, found that giving NMN supplements to mice changed their cells from the equivalent of a 60-year-old human to a 30-year-old. He said: “They were indistinguishable from younger mice.

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/humans-to-test-drug-that-reverses-ageing-s8rr2s898

24.03.2017 um 8:45