|
 |
| Published | Editor: Susan K. Boyer, RN © RAmEx Ars Medica, Inc. All rights reserved. |
|
|
 An Anti-Ageing Cocktail?
Scientists have rejuvenated ageing rats by giving them a cocktail of dietary supplements. The breakthrough raises hopes that it might one day be possible to develop an anti-ageing drug for humans. The researchers gave a combination of two natural chemicals available in health food stores to the animals - which were in the rat equivalent of their seventies. Lead researcher Dr Bruce Ames, of the University of California at Berkeley, said the results were astonishing. He said: "With the two supplements together, these old rats got up and did the Macarena. "The brain looks better, they are full of energy - everything we looked at looks more like a young animal." The animals' memories were also significantly improved. The researchers estimate that the effect on the rats was the equivalent making a 75 to 80-year-old person act middle-aged. Found in the body The chemicals used in the experiment were acetyl-L-carnitine and alpha-lipoic acid, both of which are normally found in the body's cells. Acetyl-L-carnitine is sold as an energy-booster and alpha-lipoic acid as an antioxidant with anti-ageing effects. The combination of the two chemicals has now been patented by the University of California. A company set up to exploit the patent, Juvenon, is already conducting human clinical trials. Three research papers on different animal studies of the chemicals have been published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The studies probed the biochemical action of the supplements, compared the behaviour of old and young rats, and tested the memory of animals fed the compounds. The researchers found that the two chemicals in combination have a positive impact on mini-organs within the body's cells called mitochondria. Mitochondria generate energy within the cells, and research has suggested that their deterioration is an important cause of ageing. The problem seems to be that the very process of creating energy generates molecules called free radicals, which have a deeply destructive effect on the way cells work. The supplement combination was found to mop up the free radicals in mitochondria. It also boosts the activity of an enzyme fundamental to the energy-creating process. The research also showed that mitochondria in brain cells important to memory were less damaged by radicals in animals fed the supplements. Caroline Bradley, of the charity Research into Ageing, said: "The big step forward is that they have found a way of getting anti-oxidant into the mitochondria itself. Getting past the mitochondrial membrane has been the main challenge." She added that it was early days for the research but that it was the first step towards improving human health in later life. |
||
