After scientists have made a major breakthrough in understanding the aging process, it can be expected that an effective anti-aging agent could appear within three years. Australian researchers have discovered one of the key elements of aging - the molecular process that allows the body to repair damaged DNA - and believe that this discovery can be used to develop a revolutionary drug that can effectively slow down aging.
Our cells have an innate ability to repair damaged DNA, and they do it all the time, for example, when we are in the sun.
Decreased ability to recover
But our ability to repair DNA declines with age, contributing to the aging process.
Recent experiments in mice suggest that drugs will soon appear that will slow human aging by improving the ability of cells to repair DNA damage caused by aging. "Cells from aged mice were indistinguishable from cells from young mice after just one week of treatment," said study author David Sinclair of the University of New South Wales.
Human trials of this technique will begin in six months.
Treatment for the mice included raising levels of NAD, a DNA repair protein that naturally occurs in our bodies.
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Human use of the drug can also help combat the effects of radiation accelerating the aging process due to DNA damage.
NASA has high hopes for the drug
The results of the experiments with mice have been enthusiastically received by NASA experts, who believe that it may help them solve the problem of keeping astronauts healthy during the four-year mission to Mars. Even on short flights, astronauts experience accelerated aging due to the effects of cosmic radiation and, upon returning from space, suffer from muscle weakness, memory loss and other symptoms. On an expedition to Mars, the situation would be much worse: five percent of the cells in the human body would die.
Sergey Lukavsky