Ouroboros on Reversing AGE Accumulation
You'll find more commentary on recent research into advanced glycation endproducts (AGEs) and alagebrium over at Ouroboros: "A drug was designed against a specific form of age-related damage, demonstrated to attack this damage in vitro, and then shown to be efficacious in a clinical setting. In addition to providing good news for sufferers of hypertension, the study takes an important step toward verifying the model that AGE in fact do play a causative role in the onset of age-related disease. Most enticing is the idea that AGE reversal (in this case via treatment with alagebrium) appears not to delay the onset of of damage but to actually reverse it - even in elderly patients, even after that damage has contributed to a potentially life-threatening clinical condition. Slowing the accumulation of damage will be an important part of the anti-aging pharmacopoeia of the future - an ounce of prevention being worth a pound of cure - but unless the rate of damage accumulation can be slowed to zero, methods of reversing existing damage will also be required."
Link: http://ouroboros.wordpress.com/2007/02/14/reversing-age-in-the-cardiovascular-system/