SYDNEY, March 25 (Xinhua) -- Man's search for immortality is another step closer to reality with a major breakthrough in creating a drug capable of fighting the aging process -- a drug that could be available before 2018 -- after pioneering work led by an Australian researcher with the University of New South Wales (UNSW).
The study led by Professor David Sinclair, from UNSW Medicine, has revealed that a single anti-aging enzyme in the body has the potential to prevent age-related diseases and extend lifespans.
The paper released this month, shows all of the 117 drugs tested work on the single enzyme through a common mechanism.
This consequences are far-ranging and suggest that an entirely new class of anti-aging drugs are now viable.
Drugs that could ultimately prevent the great disease's of our lifetime -- from cancer, Parkinson's Disease, Alzheimer's disease and even the burden of modern lifestyles -- type 2 diabetes.
"Ultimately, these drugs would treat one disease, but unlike drugs of today, they would prevent 20 others," Professor Sinclair said.
"In effect, they would slow aging."
Trials focusing on a series of maladies have shown promise already, and the list is a veritable who's who of the great disease's of the 21st century.
These range from cancer, cardiovascular disease and cardiac failure, type 2 diabetes, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases, fatty liver disease, cataracts, osteoporosis, muscle wasting, sleep disorders and through to inflammatory diseases such as arthritis.
"In the history of pharmaceuticals, there has never been a drug that tweaks an enzyme to make it run faster," said Professor Sinclair, a geneticist with the Department of Pharmacology at UNSW.
The technology was sold to pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline in 2008.
Four thousand synthetic activators, which are 100 times as potent as a single glass of red wine, have been developed with the best three in human trials today.
"Our drugs can mimic the benefits of diet and exercise, but there is no impact on weight," said Professor Sinclair, who has isolated diabetes as the first disease to be targeted.
There have been limited trials in people with type 2 diabetes with measurable benefits to the subject's metabolism.
Professor Sinclair hopes that one day, the drugs could be taken orally as a preventative.
Effectively, a pill that prevents the illnesses associated with natural aging.
In animal models, overweight mice given synthetic resveratrol were able to run twice as far as slim mice and they lived 15 percent longer.
"Now we are looking at whether there are benefits for those who are already healthy. Things there are also looking promising," said Professor Sinclair, who also heads the Lowy Cancer Research Centre's Laboratory for aging Research at UNSW.
"We're finding that aging isn't the irreversible affliction that we thought it was... Some of us could live to 150, but we won 't get there without more research."
I can see "life expectancy" going up, sure...things,people,drugs,medicine,science...evol ves over time. However to live forever? That's for the afterlife, not now...
No doubt the new drugs look like they'll improve the quality of life for people and hopefully fight diseases without causing too many side effects but immortality?
No doubt the new drugs look like they'll improve the quality of life for people and hopefully fight diseases without causing too many side effects but immortality?
No way, unless they can figure out how to survive things like murder, getting hit by a truck, drowning..and stuff like getting eaten by lions..
Scientists whose develop kind of miracle drugs might not believe that afterlife exist at all. They have only this life and they want to keep it... forever.
Man dies, not because of some cause, but because God has determined that he/she should die at the appointed time. Causes are just apparent. in Islam we know that the real reason why someone dies is because the angel of death takes his/her soul. This is why someone may fall from 7th floor but still live - which has happened as reported on news a few years ago. So, no matter what drugs are developed to fight disease or enhance lifespan, death will still occur at its appointed time.
Another reason why the West is the epitome of the trial of Dajjal in this age. Giving people the false impression that they can figure out a way to live forever sounds like attributing Godhood to oneself. Dajjal would claim to have God's powers, but in reality, just as his name indicates, this is mere deceit and nothing else. No man has the ability to do what God can do, namely, to live forever.
This post gives me another reason to ask: Why do Muslims still wait for another Dajjal to come when the world is steeped in this deceit in this age already? Does not anyone else see how the scientists of the West try to assume the position of God in what they try to achieve? I'm not against science or all scientists. But this arrogant attitude towards God is quite obviously the same deceit that was foretold. Something to think about...
We all know that death is getting closer to everyone of us every day. ALLAH SWT allowed them to think about some knowledge. i dare them to take that drug and when the angel of death faces them.
It's remind me to the early 90's movie "Death becomes her" about two immortal women who dead but still alive.
That movie was a satire for some people who have dream of "young and immortal". This dream is really exist among some human since long time ago. If we notice history we could find that efforts to find the secret of "young and immortal" were really ever done. But all of them were failed.
Now in this modern days, there are scientist who still try to find the secret of "young and immortal", but they use method that more realistic, stop the aging. They believe if someone is always young so he will be spared from death due to old age.
But can human saved from death if they always young?. I have lost few of my friends in their young age due to accidents and also murder.
SYDNEY, March 25 (Xinhua) -- Man's search for immortality is another step closer to reality with a major breakthrough in creating a drug capable of fighting the aging process -- a drug that could be available before 2018 -- after pioneering work led by an Australian researcher with the University of New South Wales (UNSW).
This is rather misleading? Something could slow the aging process but to conclude that this is a step towards immortality? That just doesn't make sense.
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