by Wine Business International
Experimental drug compounds created to mimic resveratrol, a chemical found in red wine, have been shown to reverse symptoms of age-related diseases in mice. It’s a discovery that could hold out
hope for the treatment of Type 2 diabetes and other age-related diseases, convincing the scientists at US drug maker Sirtris Pharmaceuticals to begin human testing in early 2008.
In one study, published in a November edition of Cell, Sirtris administered resveratrol to mice. The treated mice showed weight loss due to decreased fat, along with improved insulin sensitivity and an increase in exercise endurance. Activation of SIRT1, one of the recently discovered family of sirtuin enzymes, was shown to be the mechanism by which the therapeutic benefits occurred.
The problem with administering resveratrol is that the doses need to be very large to get the effects, so the company has been searching for drug compounds that offer the same effects. In the process they tested more than 50,000 molecules and isolated several that have the same effects as resveratrol, but which are more potent.
"The excitement here is that we’re not talking about red wine any more,” David Sinclair, an associate professor of pathology at Harvard Medical School and a co-founder of Sirtris, told Reuters. "This is the first time that real drugs have been designed to go after diseases through the genes that control ageing.”
Depending of the results of the 2008 trial, the drug may protect against other Western diseases such as heart disease and some cancers, as well as Type 2 diabetes.
