Towards SIRT6 Upregulation as a Calorie Restriction Mimetic Strategy

Researchers have in recent years expressed a growing interest in the role of sirtuin 6 (SIRT6) in the mechanisms of calorie restriction and improved function that occurs in response to mild stress. Many forms of stress, such as lowered levels of nutrients, produce benefits via upregulation of cellular maintenance processes such as autophagy. That said, it is unclear as to whether calorie restriction mimetic therapies will prove to be all that interesting as a class of therapy in humans, as calorie restriction only produces significant gains in life span in short-lived species. While scientists are far from a full accounting of how exactly the sweeping metabolic changes induced by calorie restriction lead to slowed aging, it is reasonable to think that long-lived species are long-lived precisely because many of the important changes induced by calorie restriction in short-lived species such as mice are already activated all of the time in long-lived species such as our own. Thus calorie restriction increases mouse life span by 40%, but it certainly doesn't do that in humans. US-Israeli startup SIRTLab is focused on the development of therapeutics that boost levels of a key protein called sirtuin 6 (SIRT6), which is heavily implicated in longevity. It appears that high levels of SIRT6 also boosts physical performance and improves memory and cognitive function, even in young mice. By generating mice with overexpression of SIRT6, researchers have demonstrated aver...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs