The world works in strange ways; as soon as I mention twice the paucity of AGE-breaker and AGE-inhibitor work, more research groups start to come to my attention. Before diving into the example below, you might want to first refresh your memory on the buildup of advanced glycation endproducts (AGEs) and their contribution to aging.

• Beneficial effects of C36, a novel breaker of advanced glycation endproducts cross-links, on the cardiovascular system of diabetic rats

Unfortunately, past evidence suggests that excitement over work in rodents should be muted at best - the history of ALT-711 or alagebrium demonstrates that different types of AGEs are important in shorter-lived mammals versus humans. So far, promising work in mice and rats has translated poorly into human therapies - in most cases, through trying to address the wrong AGEs.

You'll noticed that this group, as for a number of others, is focused on diabetes. This is very much the way of the world in medical research. Regulation - both directly by decree and indirectly through raising costs of development - forces researchers down the road of focusing upon specific common diseases. You can't raise significant funds through the normal channels for work aimed at addressing an aspect of aging itself so long as major regulatory bodies will not approve the end result of your work for use. So, for example, most AGE research aims at diabetes because diabetic metabolism generates - and suffers due to - AGEs at an accelerated rate, but more pertinently because funds can be raised.

So it is that a range of the most promising potential research into addressing aging, not just AGE-breakers, is happening by stealth, in groups whose officially declared purposes span the known diseases of aging. Progress towards the more interesting goal of repairing age-related damage in our bodies proceeds at a fraction of the pace it might, because there is little freedom in medical research and development these days. It's a tragedy; unless this state of affairs is overturned, it will ensure age-related suffering and death comes for us much sooner than would otherwise be possible.

Posted by Reason at October 31, 2007 7:00 PM | TrackBack (0)