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Sirtris founders tout potential of aging drugs
Sirtris Pharmaceuticals took center stage at a conference on aging held at Harvard Medical School last week, offering a detailed look at the drugs it is developing that mimic the activity of resveratrol in extending a person's lifespan and combating disease.
Harvard Med School researcher David Sinclair, who co-founded Sirtris and helped offer some Ivy League respectability to the R&D work being done on aging, believes that the body's activation of sirtuins is a defensive mechanism for dealing with famine. Investigators have seen that a sharp reduction in caloric intake extends the life of rats by 40 percent. And they believe that drugs that mimic a powerful concentration of resveratrol can improve a person's longevity without the hunger.
Sirtris corporate development chief Brian Gallagher revealed that unpublished studies showed that one of the developer's compounds, SRT-1720, significantly extended the life of mice.
Sinclair says the company's drugs have a good chance of working against inflammation, which is linked to ailments such as irritable bowel syndrome and glaucoma, as well as various cancers, Type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and Alzheimer's disease. SRT-501 is now being studied as a treatment for cancer while SRT-2104 is in a mid-stage study for diabetes.
"In five or six or seven years," said Christoph Westphal, Sirtris's other co-founder, "there will be drugs that prolong longevity."
- read the article in the New York Times
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Comments
By Anonymous | Posted 3:56pm | September 29, 2009
"in five or six or seven years, there will be drugs that prolong longevity". These comments by Christopher Westphal are irresponsible. Aging is not a disease, nor is dying. Although, there are age-related diseases. The clinical trials being performed are NOT testing the efficacy of Sirtuin's compounds in promoting longevity. They are being tested for efficacy in treating cancer and diabetes. There is a huge difference and his comments are misleading.
By LoneStar | Posted 12:35pm | October 2, 2009
With the potential good news such discoveries bring, they also raise serious questions: what will we do if people indeed start living much longer, given that we cannot even afford our current health care system?
At some point, something has to give. Providers and consumers have to make concessions, something neither side seems willing to do.
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