Long-Life Worm And Diseases Of Ageing

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Monday, 02 October, 2000

A team of geneticists believe that experiments with a nematode worm (Caenorhabditis elegans) could hold the key to prolonging human life.

Researchers at Manchester University, England and the Buck Institute, USA, have slowed down the ageing process of the worm with drugs. By mimicking two of the worm's natural defence systems against oxygen radicals, the drugs extended the nematode's life-span between 50 and 100%.

The findings suggest that similar drugs could be used to prolong youthfulness in humans and help to find cures for Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and other age-related diseases.

Oxygen radicals are a natural by-product of normal metabolism but are thought to cause damage by modifying other molecules such as proteins and deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). Natural defence systems including vitamins and antioxidant enzymes, reduce the rate of accumulation of such damage. The drugs used by Manchester University and developed by Eukarion of the US are powerful antioxidants which catalyse the conversion of oxygen radicals into harmless water and oxygen.

Research at Eukarion in collaboration with the Buck Institute is now focused on the action of trials with mammals, working on the premise that ageing is very complex and likely to be the by-product of many metabolic and physiological processes.

Researchers know aging is under genetic control and, for the worm at least, they know how to slow ageing by altering specific genes. As the untreated worms began to die, their drug-treated companions were swimming around full of life.

Each time the experiment was repeated, it worked. It will take more work to find out exactly what is going. Nevertheless, experiences show that ageing is a solvable biological problem. The hope is that in the future researchers may be better able to rationally design drugs that prevent or postpone age-related illnesses.

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