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WINE, LESS DINE; Age study eyes low-calory diet...and a glass of red

Posted on: Monday, 25 August 2003, 06:00 CDT

Researchers in Boston say they may have found the key to longevity, discovering a way to duplicate the anti-aging effects of a near-starvation diet and nearly doubling the lifespan of one primitive organism.

"This has the potential to be the Holy Grail of aging research," said co-author David Sinclair, assistant professor of pathology at Harvard Medical School.

Today's paper, published in Nature's online edition, follows up on previous work that showed mice, rats, worms, fleas and yeast all live longer on a low-calorie diet.

The problem for humans is that nobody is able to stay on a diet that involves reducing caloric intake by up to 70 percent.

So Sinclair and his associates have been looking for a way to mimic what goes on in cells in organisms that are fed such diets.

They tested a number of molecules on yeast and on human cells in a test tube and found that a particular class known as polyphenols, including ones found in red wine and olive oil, worked best.

The polyphenol known as resveratrol, which is found in red wine, extended the lifespan of yeast by 80 percent.

Tests of the molecules on human cells showed they were able to protect against DNA damage. Cells given these molecules were three times more likely to withstand radiation damage than untreated ones.

If these molecules were to work in humans as they do in yeast, it would mean a human life expectancy of 138.

Sinclair said he isn't predicting anything close to that, saying he would be happy with an additional eight healthy years. But he said the idea of living to 100 or 150, on average, is no longer a pipedream.

"It might be possible," he said. "This discovery brings such things at least into the realm of possibility. Before this it was all science fiction."

Dr. David Finkelstein of the National Institute on Aging, which funded the research, said the findings are "intriguing," but added: "There are a lot of things that are unknown."

He said that while preliminary results on monkeys fed a low- calorie diet have been encouraging - they seem to be healthier - it is too soon to say if they are going to live longer.

"That would be a leap of faith," he said.

That said, Finkelstein said he is encouraged by the findings. "This could be the breakthrough of all times, but right now we just don't know. But if worms and fruit flies lived longer, that's an important point. I think there's something there."

Sinclair said a low-calorie diet puts the body under stress that causes it do react in defense - by repairing DNA damage. As a result, the body lives longer.

But if the compounds can be made available in pill form, "we wouldn't have to gulp a bottle of wine day," he said. "We're on our way to making this a reality. We're working as fast as we can."

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