AN anti-ageing drug may be less than five years away.
University of NSW researchers have discovered a critical step in the molecular process that could reverse the process of ageing by allowing cells to repair damaged DNA.
The team experimented giving mice a treatment for DNA damage caused by ageing and radiation.
Their findings were so promising that even NASA is excited about their potential to keep astronauts from experiencing accelerated ageing caused by cosmic radiation.
"The cells of the old mice were indistinguishable from the young mice after just one week of treatment," said lead author David Sinclair of UNSW School of Medical Sciences and Harvard Medical School Boston.
"This is the closest we are to a safe and effective anti-ageing drug that's perhaps only three to five years away from being on the market if the trials go well," Professor Sinclair said.
Human trials of the therapy will begin within six months in Boston.
Professor Sinclair and his colleague Dr Lindsay Wu have been working on turning this therapy, known as NMN, into a drug substance for four years and won NASA's iTech competition in December last year.
Their findings were published today in the Science journal.
