Red Wine Drug Shows Proof That It Combats Aging
红酒抗衰老有依据
SAN FRANCISCO -- For the first time, scientists have proof in human subjects that a derivative of an ingredient in red wine combats some symptoms of aging. Sirtris Pharmaceuticals announced the results here on Monday at the JPMorgan Healthcare Conference.
声佛朗西斯科的研究人员第一次证明了红酒中某种成分的衍生物在人体内可以发挥对抗衰老症状的作用。在周一的JPMorgan健康会议上Sirtris药物制剂公司宣布了这一结果。
Resveratol, naturally found in red wine, stimulates a gene known as SIRT1, which has been linked with extended lifespans in rodents. The new study is the first time similar effects have been replicated in humans.
Resveratol是红酒中的一种天然成分，可以刺激SIRT1基因，这一基因与啮齿动物的生命期延长有关，新的研究第一次表明类似的作用在人体的到证实。
"We believe that this is the first time that a drug candidate has shown efficacy in a disease of aging by targeting the genes that control aging," said Christoph Westphal, CEO of Sirtris.
Sirtris公司的CEO Christoph Westphal称：我们认为这是第一次通过敲除基因来对抗衰老，对老化性疾病显示有效果的的药物。
Sirtris was co-founded by David Sinclair, a Harvard Medical School researcher, who discovered SIRT1's role in regulating lifespan. His early work was in yeast, and he later showed that stimulating SIRT1 through a calorie-restricted diet helped animals live longer. Then, Sinclair found resveratol, which stimulates the same gene with results similar to calorie-restriction but without the diet. Resveratrol's effects in mice touched off a storm of excitement among people, including Sinclair, who began taking the drug in its over-the-counter（OTC） form hoping to extend their lifespans.
Sirtris公司的投资人之一David Sinclair是哈佛医药学院的研究者，他发现了SIRT1在调节生命周期方面的作用。他的早期工作在酵母中进行，随后研究显示通过限制热量饮食有助于动物寿命延长。接下来他发现了reveratol，它可以激活同一基因，作用与饮食热量控制相似，但无需控制饮食。Resveratrol在小鼠体内的作用在研究领域中引起轩然大波，包括Sinclair自己，他开始研制药物，作为一种非处方药，给希望延长寿命的人们带来希望。
Sirtris' proprietary formulation of the drug significantly reduced blood sugar in 67 diabetic patients as compared with a placebo group. The results are an important milestone in bringing resveratrol-related drugs to market.
与安慰剂相比，药物中Sinclair所有权组分使67名糖尿病患者血糖明显下降，这一结果对于白藜芦醇类药物的上市来说是重要的里程碑。
The study, however, ran just 28 days and had conservative goals: to measure whether a resveratol formulation called SRT501, which is five times easier for the body to use than naturally occurring resveratol, was safe and had some activity in humans. Getting the drug through the regulatory process will take until at least 2012, the company said.
然而研究仅仅进行了28天就中止了，保守的目标是检测白藜芦醇的组分是否是STR501，STR501被集体利用的能力是天然白藜芦醇的五倍直多，对人体安全有效。公司称：至少到2012年此药才能通过调控程序。
The results partially answer skeptics like Steven Austad, a cellular biologist and longevity researcher at the University of Texas, who expressed doubts about the impact of resveratol in humans to Wired News last year after mouse studies showed longevity gains.
这一结果部分回答了一些怀疑的问题。例如在Texas大学任职的Steven Austad,他是一个细胞生物学家和一个人类寿命研究专家。他对白藜芦醇在人体的作用持怀疑态度，去年对小鼠的研究发现可使寿命延长后，他在Wired News上提出了这一疑惑。
"People in the research community tend to think of mice as small little furry humans with long tails, but they're not," Austad said at the time. "We don't know what it will do."
Austad说，研究机构的人们企图把小鼠看作身上长了皮毛并有长尾巴的小人，可惜它们不是，我们并不知道他对人作用如何。
Sirtris can now say it does know what SRT501 does, at least for a small number of patients over a short period of time: It works.
Sirtris称现在可以知道t SRT501的作用，至少在短期内，对一小数量的病人来说是有效的。
Patients in the trial were given 2,500 or 5,000 milligrams of the drug in liquid form. Both groups had positive outcomes with no side effects. Westphal said during a question-and-answer session following his presentation at the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference that the unusually high doses were necessary because resveratrol is not a very potent molecule.
药物试验的病人给预2500或5000mg液态药物，两组病人实验结果都呈阳性并且没有副作用。Westphal称他的实验结果在JP Morgan健康会议展示，由于白藜芦醇不是强效的分子，故实验使用了非同寻常的大剂量，之后就进入了对白藜芦醇提问和回答阶段。
That's why the company is also working with other molecules -- potential drugs -- that are unrelated to resveratrol but also stimulate the SIRT1 gene. Some of the molecules could be up to 1,000 times more potent than resveratrol, he added.
他补充说，这也是公司研究其他分子－潜在的药物－这种分子与白藜芦醇无关，但具有与白藜芦醇相同的可以激活SIRT1基因的功能，有些分子的效能比白藜芦醇高1000倍。
Still, SRT501 was effective enough that Sirtris is continuing to push the drug through clinical trials.
无论如何，SRT501足够有效，所以Sirtris公司将继续推进此药通过临床实验的研究。
"Based on the positive results, and the fact that there are a lot of desirable characteristics to SRT501, we've initiated a Phase IIa study combining SRT501 with the most common diabetic drug, metformin," said Westphal. "Those data are back in the second half of this year."
Westphal说在这些阳性的结果和SRT501具有令人振奋的作用事实之上，我们开始了将SRT501和普通糖尿病药物联合使用治疗IIa型糖尿病的研究，研究结果将于今年的后半年公布。Westphal称基于这些阳性结果及SRT501本身的一些特性，公司已开始着手进行SRT501与最常用糖尿病药物二甲双胍联合用药的二期临床研究，这些数据可于今年下半年取得
Sirtris had an initial public offering of its stock back in May of 2007 and is up 23 percent since that time. Following the clinical trial announcement, the stock gained 1.5 percent in after-hours trading.
2007年五月，Sirtris公司开始向公众发行他们股票，从那时到现在，已经上升了23％，临床实验宣布后，在几个小时的交易后，又增长了1.5个百分点。2007年5月Sirtris开始发行股票，目前已上升了23%。临床试验发布以后，股票在闭市后的交易中增长了1.5%。
http://www.wired.com/medtech/drugs/news/2008/01/resveratrol
