Eliminating Disease
November 07, 2007
BOSTON (Ivanhoe Newswire) — What if you could pop a pill and kill cancer before you even knew you had it? Or destroy diabetes before it destroys you? Would you let doctors inject a tiny robot into your body that targets disease without you even realizing it? These innovations could add decades to your life.
The end of the road comes fast! But what if you could get an extra mile or two, or decade or two, out of your life? A little bottle may hold the key.
“What were talking about is a single pill that you can take every day that would ward off most diseases,” says David Sinclair, Ph.D., a pathologist at Harvard Medical School and co-founder of Sirtris Pharmaceuticals.
Dr. Sinclair and his business partner, Christoph Westphal, believe they have found an elixir for a longer life.
“Were talking about treating a very large set of very important diseases. Really, most of the key killers of most of the western world,” explains Westphal, CEO of Sirtris Pharmaceuticals.
Its a chemical found in red wine that destroys diabetes, Alzheimers, Parkinsons and cancer.
“Resveratrol is a molecule that comes from plants, and the way we think it works is it binds to a protein in our cells that combats diseases of aging,” says Dr. Sinclair.
Resveratrol activates a gene called SIRT1.
“When you activate SIRT1, which is this anti-aging gene, you seem to be able to treat disease of aging, such as diabetes,” Westphal says.
SIRT1 is activated by cutting calories. Mice live much longer when they are fed a diet with 30 percent to 40 percent fewer calories. Resveratrol mimics caloric restriction without the strict diet that few people are able to maintain.
“What my hope is that doctors will start to prescribe this drug for diabetes, but doctors will also start to find that this drug starts to do other things like protect against heart disease, cancer, Alzheimers. Thats really what the animal models are predicting. In mice, we see this same molecule, resveratrol, protect against all of these major diseases,” Dr. Sinclair says.
But nobody knows if resveratrol will be toxic when taken by humans. Mice have consumed 400-milligrams of resveratrol per kilogram of body weight without ill-effect. In fact, the rodents became sleek, slim and powerfully athletic.
“We think that resveratrol from red wine is just the beginning. Its more of just a proof of whats possible and what is to come,” Dr. Sinclair says.
If the answer isnt in this pill, scientists around the globe are banking on nanotechnology to add years to everyones life. These tiny robots would exist inside the human body, small enough to assemble and re-assemble molecular parts to detect and even prevent disease.
Nanotechnology is being used now in Germany to kill prostate cancer. Particles of iron so tiny you cannot see them with the human eye are injected into the prostate.
“They have been shown not only to infiltrate tissues if you inject them directly into a tumor, but also, they can selectively go into tumor cells,” says Manfred Johannsen, M.D., a urologist at Charité Hospital in Berlin.
The nanoparticles are heated to extremely high temperatures by a magnetic field, literally burning out the cancer.
“This green is the prostate and the blue spots are nanoparticle deposits,” Dr. Johannsen says.
But this is just the beginning of nanotechnology.
“We would like to inject them into the veins and they would find their way into the organ that needs to be treated,” Dr. Johannsen says.
At Johns Hopkins, researchers have encapsulated the anti-cancer agent curcumin in nanoparticles. At Northwestern, paralyzed mice were injected with nanoliquid. Six weeks later, they could walk. Right now, both are just in studies, but we could realize the benefits of nanotechnology in the next 10 to 20 years.
“Our goal is to keep people out of nursing homes, instead of extend the time theyre in nursing homes,” Dr. Sinclair says.
But neither of these breakthroughs is a guarantee.
“Its very hard to make living things live forever. The ravages of time are very hard on the body,” Dr. Sinclair says.
But we want to make sure were on the road as long as possible, and by eliminating disease, we can make our lifes journey last even longer.
As for the magic pill, scientists are now working on molecules up to 1,000 times more potent and active than resveratrol. Human clinical trials will start next year. Dr. Sinclair believes a pill to fight heart disease, cancer and Alzheimer’s could hit the market in the next five years. Nanotechnology clinical trials are already underway and are expected to be mainstream in the next decade. If you think just drinking red wine will do the trick, think again. It would take 1,000 glasses of red wine to equal the resveratrol found in just one pill.
FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:
Sirtris Pharmaceuticals
http://www.sirtrispharma.com
info@sirtrispharma.com
Ray and Terry’s Longevity Products
http://www.rayandterrys.com
(877) 263-8263
http://www.kurzweilai.net