Effective anti-ageing drug therapy may be available within five years, following a research breakthrough by the University of NSW (UNSW).

The work, conducted by UNSW geneticist David Sinclair, finally proves that a single anti-ageing enzyme in the body can be targeted, with the potential to prevent age-related diseases and extend lifespans.

The paper shows all of the 117 drugs tested work on the single enzyme through a common mechanism. This means that a whole new class of anti-ageing drugs is now viable, which could ultimately prevent cancer, Alzheimer’s disease and type 2 diabetes.

“Ultimately, these drugs would treat one disease, but unlike drugs of today, they would prevent 20 others,” says the lead author of the paper, Professor David Sinclair, from UNSW Medicine, who is based at Harvard University. “In effect, they would slow ageing.”

The target enzyme, SIRT1, is switched on naturally by calorie restriction and exercise, but it can also be enhanced through activators. The most common naturally-occurring activator is resveratrol, which is found in small quantities in red wine, but synthetic activators with much stronger activity are already being developed.

“In the history of pharmaceuticals, there has never been a drug that tweaks an enzyme to make it run faster,” says Professor Sinclair, “our drugs can mimic the benefits of diet and exercise, but there is no impact on weight.”

“Now we are looking at whether there are benefits for those who are already healthy. Things there are also looking promising.

“We’re finding that ageing isn’t the irreversible affliction that we thought it was,” he says. “Some of us could live to 150, but we won’t get there without more research.”