Don't hold your breath

Since developing treatments even for specific aging-related diseases such as Alzheimer's disease is proving difficult, it seems reasonable to assume that industry may have a tough time gaining a foothold on the aging process itself. Nevertheless, the public is enthralled with the fountain of youth, with the latest excitement being generated last week by an article in Science associating aging with gene expression. However, that paper does not indicate a clear therapeutic intervention point to "treat" aging.

University of Wisconsin (Madison, Wis.) researchers and colleagues published a gene expression analysis of mice placed on a calorie-restricted diet, which has been thought for at least 11 years to retard the aging process in mammals. Using oligonucleotide arrays representing 6,347 genes, the researchers identified 113 genes that were either up- or down-regulated in leg muscle cells during the aging process...