Sirtris, a pharmaceutical company announced a pause in the clinical trials for resveratrol. It is a compound found in red wine. Researchers claim that reservertrol might hold the secret to longer life.
The company’s attempt to halt the research on resveratrol suggests that the compound might not be as beneficial as suggested.
In 2008, GlaxoSmithKline took over Sirtris for $720 million. According to Sirtris’s Chief executive George Vlasuk, SRT501 (the company’s formulation of resveratrol) is an important substance but wasn’t the main focus for the merger. He said that there are many attributes of resveratrol which makes it unsuitable as a drug. One of the factors is that the compound is too complex to sustain a high volume of resveratrol in our blood. In addition, different doses seem to have diverse effects.
Dr. Vlasuk said that resveratrol is believed to increase the expression of SIRT1. However, it has been seen at some doses of the compound seem to stop the release of the protein SIRT1. Besides, from a commercial perspective, resveratrol is a natural compound and can’t be given a patent.
Glaxo merged with Sirtris to facilitate their entrance into a new research field. It is believed that SIRT1 prolongs the life of mice being fed on specific calorie diets. Scientists are expecting or at least hoping that the activation of SIRT1 in human will have the same benefits.
Three clinical trials have been completed on synthetic resveratrol-mimicking drugs. Sirtris will make the result public next year. The drug does work fairly well. It activates only SIRT1 in comparison to resvertrol which influence other processes of the cell. Dr. Vlasuk says that the development of more accurate drugs targeting SIRT1 reduces the pertinence of resveratrol.
However, David Sinclair as well as Christoph Westphal who are the co-founder of Sirtris are still confident that resveratrol is an important compound. Dr. Sinclair is a researcher at the Harvard Medical School, and he says that unpublished research on rhesus monkeys is proving resveratrol to be a powerful molecule for longevity.
According to Dr. Westphal, resveratrol as well as the drug developed by Sirtris that copies the compound’s effects on SIRT1 have demonstrated positive results on both human and animal studies.
Dr. Rafael de Cabo from the National Institute on Aging has conducted research trials on rhesus monkeys. The result revealed parallel conclusion to those conducted by Dr. Sinclair on mice. It was demonstrated that resveratrol could prolong the life of obese mice consuming a high-fat diet, but apparently not for typical mice. Normal mice did, nonetheless, show signs of improved heart function as well as reduced bone loss (in the experiment). Dr. De Cabo was unwilling to discuss any preliminary information concerning longevity of the rhesus monkeys as their normal lifespan is 40 years, and it will take several years to evaluate the longevity effects that resveratrol has on them.
Resveratrol is a very interesting but complex molecule. The current potential of the compound is still ‘to be discovered’ said Dr. De Cabo. However, he claims that more research is rudimentary for any conclusion on the effectiveness of resveratrol.
Source: New York Times
Sun, Jan 16, 2011
Anti Aging, Anti Aging Supplements