Good News For Progeria Sufferers
Research into progeria, an accelerated aging condition, has improved our understanding of normal aging. It is good to hear that scientists have made unexpectedly good progress towards a therapy that addresses the biochemistry of progeria: "farnesyltransferase inhibitors (FTIs), originally developed for cancer, are capable of reversing the dramatic nuclear structure abnormalities that are the hallmark of cells from children with progeria. This is a stunning surprise, rather like finding out that the key to your house also works in the ignition of your car." This discovery comes a mere two years after "researchers in Francis Collins's lab at the National Human Genome Research Institute discovered that mutations in the lamin A (LMNA) gene cause" progeria. Such rapid progress in medical research is a striking sign of the times - and very promising.
Link: http://newswire.ascribe.org/cgi-bin/behold.pl?ascribeid=20050826.125117