Washington: A wonder pill that stops aging and cures multiple diseases at once could be closer to reality with the discovery of genes that play vital role in ensuring a healthy life.
"What we are talking about is potentially having one pill that prevents and even cures many diseases at once," said David Sinclair, a pathologist at Harvard Medical School who helped lead the research.
The key is a family of enzymes called sirtuins. They are controlled by genes called SIRT1, SIRT2 and so on.
Sinclair, working with colleagues at his company, at Cornell University in New York and the US National Institutes of Health, found the enzymes controlled by two more genes called SIRT3 and SIRT4 .
"These two genes make proteins that go into mitochondria. ... These are little energy packs inside our cells that are very important for staying healthy and youthful," Sinclair said.
Sinclair and colleagues have found in other studies that even if the rest of a cell is destroyed - the nucleus and other parts - it can still function if the mitochondria are alive. His team found that fasting raises levels of another protein called NAD. This, in turn, activates SIRT3 and SIRT4 in the mitochondria of the cell and these help keep the mitochondria youthful.
"Theoretically, we can envision a small molecule [pill] that can increase levels of NAD, or SIRT3 and SIRT4 directly, in the mitochondria. Such a molecule could be used for many age-related diseases," he added.
"What we are aiming to do is to find the body's natural processes that can slow down aging and treat diseases like heart disease, cancer, osteoporosis and cataracts."
