Aussie makes anti-ageing drug breakthrough It sounds too good to be true, but a respected Australian scientist believes he has invented a new class of superdrug that could prevent cancer and Alzheimer's disease. What's more, Professor David Sinclair says his drugs have the potential to help some people enjoy a healthy life until the age of 150. However, this needs further research. A paper in the March 8 issue of the journal, Science, explains how the drugs have the ability to switch on the body's defences against ageing. Three of the drugs are in human trials for the treatment of specific illnesses such as type 2 diabetes and inflammatory bowel disease, says the University of New South Wales geneticist. He is most excited about the potential to prevent illness and hopes to prove the drugs will have a dual purpose of treating and preventing disease at the same time. My research has been criticised because it sounds too good to be true. This paper shows it is true," he says in a telephone interview from Harvard Medical School, where he is based. Prof Sinclair's drugs target the enzyme SIRT1, which is switched on naturally by calorie restriction and exercise, but it can also be enhanced through activators such as resveratrol in red wine. He and his colleagues have developed 4000 synthetic activators. Each one is 100 times more potent than a glass of red wine and the best three are the ones in human trials. "Our drugs can mimic the benefits of a healthy diet and exercise, but there is no impact on weight," says Prof Sinclair, who suggests the first medicine to be marketed could be for diabetes in about five years. Once a significant number of people are using the drugs, it will be possible to assess other benefits. We can look at 10,000 people and see if they are healthier and living longer than the general population. In animal tests, overweight mice given synthetic resveratrol were able to run twice as far as slim mice and they lived 15 per cent longer. "My prediction is that we will delay the onset of diseases and will not have so many people becoming chronically sick in their 50s and 60s," says Prof Sinclair. The hope is that people will live healthily into their hundreds.