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Worm may hold key to aging
February 13, 1997
Web posted at: 11:45 p.m. ESTFrom Correspondent Al Hinman
(CNN) -- The secret of eternal youth may lie in the lowly worm.
New research -- published in the journal "Science" -- looks at how a certain gene affects a worm's aging process.
"What they found was that a mutation in a gene ... slows down metabolism ... and the animal lives longer," said Leonard Guarente of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The worms that had the mutant gene lived up to 50 percent longer than common, wild worms.
But scientists say more is involved than simply living longer; the key is slowing down the aging process. And they need to do that without upsetting an animal's metabolism, the complex chemical and physical processes that keep all creatures alive.
"I'm not sure that slowing down metabolism would be the best way to affect aging in people. I'm not sure ultimately it's the way we would want to go," Guarente said.
Scientists know the aging process is far more complex than one gene controlling metabolism in earthworms. The search now is to identify all the genes that affect aging.
Eventually, scientists hope to apply the same principles to humans.
"There is a sense of a race to try and understand what causes aging, maybe to have a little bit of control over maintaining our vitality," Guarente said.
But scientists say they've got a long search ahead to find a real fountain of youth.
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