Sirtuin activators: NYT and de Grey
The NY Times has an article on sirtuin activators.
By suppressing the common killers of age, the drugs, sirtuin activators, could significantly prolong both health and lifespan.
But is the promise a mirage or a serious possibility?
The drugs are designed to mimic the effects of caloric restriction, a low calorie but healthful diet known to make laboratory mice live longer and more healthily but is too hard for all but the most ascetic of humans to keep to. One such drug, resveratrol, also a very minor ingredient of red wine, hit the headlines last week with a report by David Sinclair of Harvard Medical School and colleagues that it negates the bad effects of a high-fat diet in mice.
Despite the general rejoicing of fat mice everywhere, Aubrey de Grey isn’t too enthusiastic about them. In an interview in PIMM, he says:
I think effective CR mimetics may arrive within a few years. However, I am rather pessimistic about their efficacy - I think they will probably give us only a couple of extra years, even for people who use them all their lives, because I think CR itself will only give about that. I am even more pessimistic about anything else that is currently or imminently available. That’s really what drove me in the direction of SENS, which I think has a good chance of giving 30 years of extra healthy life to those who are already in middle age, within 25-30 years from now (subject to funding).
It’s a familiar theme for de Grey followers.
