Scientists cast doubt on anti-aging red wine drugs

Scientists have cast a shadow of doubt over drugs that might cheat the biology of ageing. Separate teams led by researchers at the drugs companies Amgen in Thousand Oaks, California, and Pfizer in Groton, Connecticut have questioned the claims made on compounds including resveratrol, a much-touted component of red wine that is believed to delay old age.

The Pfizer team, reported in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, that resveratrol and other compounds failed to work as expected when they conducted a series of new experiments, reports New Scientist. The Amgen team also concluded in Chemical Biology & Drug Design that resveratrol did not activate SIRT1, a protein implicated in ageing.

Matt Kaeberlein, University of Washington, Seattle, who was not involved in either study and has no link with any company developing anti-ageing drugs, said: "I think it's a setback because there's been a lot of optimism about these resveratrol-like compounds."

But the biochemist added that even if resveratrol and the Sirtris compounds did not slow ageing, they were far from being worthless. He added: "It may be that resveratrol-like compounds are going to be therapeutically useful in people."