Begin forwarded message:
From: dasg...@aol.com
Date: January 9, 2009 12:18:03 PM PST
To: ramille...@aol.com
Cc: ema...@aol.com, j...@aol.com, jim6...@cwnet.com
Subject: Heavy Metal and Old Age, No Shit
Old diarrhea drug slows aging
http://www.scienceblog.com/cms/old-diarrhea-drug-slows-aging-18174.html
Recent animal studies have shown that clioquinol -- an 80-year old
drug once used to treat diarrhea and other gastrointestinal disorders
-- can reverse the progression of Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and
Huntington's diseases. Scientists, however, had a variety of theories
to attempt to explain how a single compound could have such similar
effects on three unrelated neurodegenerative disorders.
Researchers at McGill University have discovered a dramatic possible
new answer: According to Dr. Siegfried Hekimi and colleagues at
McGill's Department of Biology, clioquinol acts directly on a protein
called CLK-1, often informally called "clock-1," and might slow down
the aging process. The advance online edition of their study was
published in Oct. 2008 in the Journal of Biological Chemistry.
"Clioquinol is a very powerful inhibitor of clock-1," explained
Hekimi, McGill's Strathcona Chair of Zoology and Robert Archibald &
Catherine Louise Campbell Chair in Developmental Biology. "Because
clock-1 affects longevity in invertebrates and mice, and because we're
talking about three age-dependent neurodegenerative diseases, we
hypothesize that clioquinol affects them by slowing down the rate of
aging."
Once commonly prescribed in Europe and Asia for gastrointestinal
problems like diarrhea and shigella, clioquinol was withdrawn from the
market after being blamed for a devastating outbreak of subacute myelo-
optic neuropathy (SMON) in Japan in the 1960s. However, because no
rigorous scientific study was conducted at the time, and because
clioquinol was used safely by millions before and after the Japanese
outbreak, some researchers think its connection to SMON has yet to be
proven.
The exact mechanism of how clioquinol inhibits CLK-1 is still under
investigation, Hekimi said. "One possibility is that metals are
involved as clioquinol is a metal chelator," he explained. Chelation
is a type of binding to metal ions and is often used to treat heavy
metal poisoning.
Hekimi is optimistic but cautious when asked whether clioquinol could
eventually become an anti-aging treatment.
"The drug affects a gene which when inhibited can slow down aging," he
said. "The implication is that we can change the rate of aging. This
might be why clioquinol is able to work on this diversity of diseases
that are all age-dependent."
However, he admits to being concerned about how people may interpret
his results.
"The danger is that you can buy a kilogram of this compound at a
chemical wholesaler, but we don't want people to start experimenting
on themselves. Clioquinol can be a very toxic substance if abused, and
far more research is required."
http://www.mcgill.ca
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