A pill for old age: in dreams or in development?
Well-known geneticist Nir Barzilai, director of the New York Institute for the Study of Aging at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine (Institute for Aging Research at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine) said that within three years, scientists plan to develop a "super pill" that will rid people of associated with aging diseases, including diabetes, Alzheimer's disease and heart disease.
The mechanism of action of the pill will be based on the drug effect on protein products of three so-called "longevity genes", the combination of which reduces the likelihood of developing Alzheimer's disease by 80%. These genes in combination and separately also protect the body from the harmful effects of smoking, poor nutrition, obesity and a sedentary lifestyle. Two of these three genes stimulate the production of so–called "good cholesterol", and the third prevents the development of diabetes.
According to the scientist, "longevity genes" were identified by studying the genomes of 500 Ashkenazi Jews, whose average age at the time of the work was 100 years. 30% of them were obese, and another 30% smoked a pack of cigarettes daily for more than 40 years, but this did not prevent them from living to such an advanced age.
(In a frame from the Horizon program on BBC2, which is announced in an article on the MailOnline website, Dr. Barzilai is with one of the participants of the study.)
Unfortunately, despite the loud title of the article, The 'live to 100' super pill that could eliminate diabetes, Alzheimer's, and heart disease 'to be ready in three years', there are no details about any miracle pill that will supposedly be ready in three years (if there is, then, at best, by the beginning of clinical trials, which take 10 years), neither about the genes and proteins on which it will act. And it is not known how much the article based on the TV show exaggerated what the scientist wanted to say.
On the college's website, which, in turn, is one of the faculties of Yeshiva University, we managed to find a much more modest message – "Longevity Gene" Helps Prevent Memory Decline and Dementia, in which plans for the development of a miracle pill are also very vague. But the essence of the research is described better than in a TV interview.
Researchers working under the guidance of Professor Richard B. Lipton have found that the so-called "longevity gene" contributes to a slower deterioration of brain function associated with aging.
Professor Lipton notes that the study of the genetics of Alzheimer's disease, as a rule, is devoted to factors that increase the risk of developing this disease. As an example, he cites the genetic variant APOE e4, which is involved in cholesterol metabolism and is a known predisposition factor for Alzheimer's disease.
In their work, the authors decided to adhere to the opposite strategy and devote the study to the search for a genetic factor that would protect against the development of age-related diseases, including memory impairment and Alzheimer's disease.
In 2003, while studying the genotype of the population of Ashkenazi Jews, Lipton and his colleagues identified a special variant of the CETP (Cholesterol Ester Transfer Protein) gene encoding a protein-carrier of cholesterol esters, called the "longevity gene". This variant of the CETP gene provides a higher content of high-density lipoproteins ("good cholesterol") in the blood and larger sizes of lipoprotein particles in general, which reduces the risk of developing cardiovascular diseases. The gene with a useful mutation was named V405: as a result of replacing one of the nucleotides, the 405th amino acid from the beginning of the amino acid chain in the corresponding protein changes from isoleucine to valine.
The researchers suggested that the V405 genotype may also be associated with a less pronounced deterioration in the cognitive functions of older people. To clarify this issue, they analyzed data on 523 participants of the Einstein Aging Study conducted by the college. As part of this federally funded project, researchers have been monitoring a racially and ethnically diverse population of elderly people living in one of the boroughs of New York - the Bronx for 25 years.
At the beginning of the study, all 523 participants (whose age was 70 years or more) they had no cognitive function disorders. Each participant took a blood test to determine the variant V405 contained in his genotype. After that, for four years, the participants were tested annually, the purpose of which was to identify signs of deterioration of cognitive abilities, symptoms of incipient Alzheimer's disease and other possible changes.
As a result, it turned out that the presence of two copies of V405 in the genome significantly slowed the decline of the mental abilities of older people, and also corresponded to a lower risk of developing senile dementia. Moreover, the presence of two copies of this genetic variant reduced the risk of developing Alzheimer's disease by 70% compared to its complete absence.
The results of the work were published in the Journal of the American Medical Association on January 13 in the article "Association of a Functional Polymorphism in the Cholesterol Ester Transfer Protein (CETP) Gene with Memory Decline and Occurrence of Dementia".
The cherished version of the "longevity gene" encodes a cholesterol carrier protein with reduced functionality. Currently, researchers are developing drugs that reduce the activity of the protein product of the "normal" variant of the CETP gene, and possibly able to solve the problem of Alzheimer's disease. Maybe someday we will wait for a pill for old age?
Evgeniya Ryabtseva
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru04.02.2010