An experimental drug has produced mice that can eat high-fat food for months without gaining weight and run twice as far as normal mice can — and the drug’s developers say that it also has anti-aging implications for humans.
The drug works by boosting the mice’s mitochondria — cellular powerhouses whose decay accounts for many of the effects of aging. According to the pharmacologists who created it, SRT1270 produces a turbocharged version of the mitochondrial maintenance that red wine delivers — and sends the cell into a false exercise mode that burns calories and provides greater stamina.
But the drug is not without its downside: While the mice could eat more and run faster, they showed little inclination to do so — in fact, left to their own devices, they were far less active than mice in the control group. And so, if the drug gets through primate and human testing (the process takes about seven years), we might be able to live longer and leaner — while being less motivated to do so.
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