Progress on developing useful AGE-breakers - drugs capable of breaking down damaging chemical crosslinks and advanced glycation endproducts (AGEs) that accumulate with age - never seems to be as fast as advocates would like. Via Newswise, however, we have some signs of movement: "This is the first demonstration that this class of drugs, known as collagen-crosslink breakers, can turn back the clock and make old arteries behave like young ones ... These results confirm that this drug does have important effects on the aging process in the arteries, but we still have to prove that there's some benefit to patients in terms of reducing cardiovascular disease. Our next step will be a study, expected to begin in late 2006, of the drug's potential benefit at preventing or reversing heart failure in the elderly."

Link: http://www.newswise.com/articles/view/516084/