Sirtris Scientific Advisory Board Member Describes a Novel Endogenous SIRT1 Activator
Sirtris Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: SIRT), a biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering and developing small molecule drugs to treat diseases of aging, announced today that Sirtris Scientific Advisory Board member and leading academic in the sirtuin field, Eric M. Verdin, M.D., published a review in Molecular Cell entitled “AROuSing SIRT1: Identification of a novel endogenous SIRT1 activator.”
The review highlights the discovery of a novel endogenous activator of SIRT1, Active Regulator of SIRT1 (AROS), published in a recent issue of Molecular Cell by Kim et al., 2007.
The natural SIRT1 activator, AROS, and Sirtris’ proprietary SIRT1 activators both bind to the N-terminus of SIRT1. This further validates SRT501, and more potent Sirtris new chemical entities that are up to 1000 times more potent than SRT501, as potential drug targets for diseases of aging including metabolic disorders such as Type 2 Diabetes, mitochondrial disorders such as MELAS, neurological disorders, and cancer.
“This review describes the first endogenous activator of SIRT1, AROS, which binds to a region of the N-terminus similar to Sirtris’ drug candidates” said Dr. Eric M. Verdin, Associate Director and Senior Investigator at the Gladstone Institute of Virology and Immunology and a Professor of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and member of Sirtris’ Scientific Advisory Board. Sirtris recently in-licensed sirtuin-related intellectual property from the laboratory of Professor Verdin at the Gladstone Institute.
“These studies support the growing body of evidence regarding the substantial therapeutic potential of SIRT1 activators, such as SRT501, our proprietary formulation of resveratrol, and new chemical entities which are structurally unrelated to, and 1000 times more potent than, resveratrol, to address a broad range of diseases of aging,” said Christoph Westphal, M.D., Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer and Vice Chair of Sirtris Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
The article can be accessed at: http://www.molecule.org/content/current.
About Sirtris Pharmaceuticals
Sirtris Pharmaceuticals is a biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering and developing proprietary, orally available, small molecule drugs with the potential to treat diseases associated with aging, including metabolic diseases such as Type 2 Diabetes. Our drug candidates are designed to mimic certain beneficial health effects of calorie restriction, without requiring a change in eating habits, by activation of sirtuins, a recently discovered class of enzymes that control the aging process. The company’s headquarters are in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements include, but are not limited to, the potential therapeutic effects of SIRT1 activators and new chemical entities for metabolic disorders such as Type 2 Diabetes, mitochondrial disorders such as MELAS, neurological disorders, and cancer, the potential effects of an active regulator of SIRT1, the potency of new chemical entities as compared to resveratrol, and the potential of sirtuin modulators to receive regulatory approval. These forward-looking statements about future expectations, plans and prospects of Sirtris Pharmaceuticals involve significant risks, uncertainties and assumptions, including risks related to the lack of results that would provide a basis for predicting whether any of the Company’s product candidates will be safe or effective, or receive regulatory approval, the possibility that results of pre-clinical studies are not necessarily predictive of clinical trial results, the Company’s potential inability to initiate and complete pre-clinical studies and clinical trials for its product candidates, the fact that none of the Company’s product candidates has received regulatory approvals, the potential inability of the Company to gain market acceptance of the Company’s product candidates, and those other risks factors that can be found in the Company’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Actual results may differ materially from those Sirtris Pharmaceuticals contemplated by these forward-looking statements. Sirtris Pharmaceuticals does not undertake to update any of these forward-looking statements to reflect a change in its views or events or circumstances that occur after the date of this release.