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Drug Target Could Extend Life
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Business New Haven
12/9/2002
By: BNH
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NEW HAVEN - Drastically reducing caloric intake is a proven way of extending life in mammals. Now a Yale researcher and colleagues from the University of Connecticut has shown how the body may translate lower calories into longer life, it was reported in the journal Science.
Using the fruit fly Drosophilia melanogaster, Stewart Frankel, senior author of the study and associate research scientist in pediatrics, said he and his colleagues have identified a drug target that could potentially achieve the results of calorie reduction without actually eating less. Co-authors of the study were Blanka Rogina and Stephen Helfand, both of the Department of Genetics and Developmental Biology at the University of Connecticut Health Center in Farmington.
"We think we can mimic caloric restriction, which has been shown to decrease levels of this enzyme," Frankel said. "If you decrease the level of enzyme without eating less, you still get life-span extension."
Researchers studying everything from yeast to monkeys have demonstrated that decreasing caloric intake by 20 percent to 40 percent has a dramatic effect on late-life diseases. In rodents and monkeys, significantly reducing caloric intake led to improved memory, reduced incidences of heart disease and cancer, and improved physical vitality. "The calorie-restricted rodents look young," Frankel said. "Even gray hair is delayed."
He said, however, that the diet is difficult to follow because the amount of food allowed is so restricted. "So, having a drug that could do the same thing would be very attractive," Frankel said.
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