A new candidate for geroprotectors

Japanese angelica took away the title of rejuvenation champion from grapes

Polina Loseva, "The Attic"

While most life–prolonging drugs have not yet moved beyond the limits of scientific debate and clinical research, resveratrol – a flavonoid from the peel of grapes - has long reached the shelves. However, its effectiveness remains controversial. An international team of scientists tested the activity of 180 other substances of plant origin and came across 4,4’-dimethoxychalcone, which saves cells from death differently and more effectively.

The most successful and safe method to slow down aging today is considered to be calorie restriction. However, it is not always easy for people to follow such a diet (one of the gerontologists complained about this at the Kazan forum on life extension), and sometimes it may be contraindicated for health reasons. Therefore, the search for drug analogues of fasting continues. The "rejuvenating potion" is sought mainly among biologically active substances of plant origin, popular in traditional medicine of different peoples. Researchers have already gone through many options, but most substances have only a local effect. The most effective finding was resveratrol, an alkaloid of grapes, which gave gerontologists a reason to joke that the truth has a good chance of being in wine. Its regular use does not cause side effects, so it has long been considered the main anti-aging dietary supplement. However, it is still unclear how effective resveratrol is.

Yesterday, a group of European researchers published an article in Nature Communications about a new rival of resveratrol. It is obtained from the Angelica keiskei koidzumi plant, a Far Eastern species of angelica (a distant relative of carrots), which is more often known by the Japanese name "ashitaba". The substance was called 4,4’-dimethoxychalcone, it strongly resembles resveratrol in structure.

Scientists treated yeast with 4,4’-dimethoxychalcone and looked at how it affects cell mortality for several days: more cells survived in its presence than in a similar experiment with resveratrol. In terms of effectiveness, the new alkaloid is comparable to rapamycin, a drug with a difficult fate, which is still used with great caution and only in clinical trials.

But it wasn't limited to yeast. After them, the newly discovered substance was tested on roundworms and flies – in both cases, the life expectancy of model organisms increased by 20%, and in mice, its injections reduced cell mortality after myocardial infarction.

Interestingly, despite the similarity with resveratrol, 4,4’-dimethoxychalcone acts on a different principle. Both of them trigger the process of self-digestion (autophagy) in cells, but if resveratrol does this through the mTOR complex, which is activated even with calorie restriction, then the new alkaloid acts directly on gene transcription factors. This means that the combination of these two substances can be even more effective.

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