Breakthrough looms in search for long life

Press, 6 September 1976, Page 8

Breakthrough looms in search for long life

NZPA-Reuter San Francisco Scientists studying the tiny hooks that tie up genetic material within cells and make people grow old have said that they are close to finding a chemical that will dissolve the bonds and reverse the ageing process, the Associated Press reports. “I’m not interested in gaining five years here and five years there,” said Dr Johan Bjorksten, a pioneer in the studying of ageing. "I’m shooting for the whole pot” , .. The whole pot, he said, was an average life expectancy of 800 years — the lifespan he said had been projected by the lifeinsurance industry if every-

one could stay as healthy as they are at 16. He added that scientists realistically could hope for only 10 per cent success, adding 80 years to everyone’s lifetime.

Dr Bjorksten told a news conference at the American Chemical Society in San Francisco that ageing occurred when two molecules in a gene, the basic unit of heredity, become hooked together by' a process called cross-linking. “If you put handcuffs on two large men, they are hampered by it, and they don’t do the work they have to do so well,” he explained. “Then if a third man comes along and you handcuff him to the other two, its going to be even more upsetting.” It was the same when molecules were linked to-

gether in this way, he said — the cells that contained the molecules did not function as well. “If they are skin cells, the skin becomes leathery. If they are tills of an artery, the artery loses its ability to expand and contract with the flow of blood, and this may lead to strokes and other diseases. "What scientists need to find,” he said, “is an enzyme — a special kind of chemical—that will dissolve the bonds that link the molecules together. “When they find that, they will have found a formula to reverse the process of ageing.” Already they had found one enzyme that seemed to work in most cells, he said, but he added that it would be a miracle if the first one

they had tested turned out to work. Dr Rolf Martin. a scientist from City University of New York, speculated, “With intensive research, I think we could have the thing done in 5 to 10 years.” He pointed out that eliminating cancer as a cause of death would increase the average lifespan by only two years. "Fifteen to 20 years is the very least we can do for ourselves,” Dr Martin said. Drs Bjorksten and Martin said that until their research was completed, people could extend their lives a fewyears by healthy living They added that reports that vitamin E slowed down the ageing process had been confirmed by their research, but cautioned against huge doses of the vitamin.