Anti-aging agents and methods to identify them
OwnerHaiyan Qiinventor
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Abstract
The present invention discloses novel mechanisms in the aging process and describes novel methods for high-throughput screening to identify, detect, and purify agents to be used for improving mitochondrial function, maintaining the cell cycle-arrested state in senescent and post mitotic cells, and thus preventing or treating age-related diseases or disorders associated with accelerated mitochondrial function loss, telomere dysfunction, and/or deterioration of the growth-arrested state. The present invention also discloses a number of compounds or compositions identified from this method. The present invention further provides the use of low doses of rapamycin or its analogs as a mimic of caloric restriction in preventing age-related diseases or disorders.
Claims16
A method of identifying or detecting an agent as a drug candidate for preventing or treating an age-related disease or disorder, the method comprising screening one or more compounds or compositions for their anti-aging activity using a mutant yeast comprising a dysfunctional telomere as senescence model system, said screening comprising the steps of:
- (i) incubating said one or more compounds or compositions with yeast cells for a period of time under conditions where a cell cycle is arrested by telomere dysfunction;
- (ii) removing the conditions under which the cell cycle is arrested and measuring the number of survived yeast cells;
- and
- (iii) comparing the number of survived yeast cells obtained in step (ii) with the number of survived yeast cells obtained in a control experiment under the same conditions as in step (i) but in the absence of said one or more compounds or compositions,
- whereby the ability to increase the number of survived yeast cells obtained in step (ii), as compared with the corresponding control experiment, would indicate that the tested compound or composition is capable of maintaining or extending G0 phase in a cell of the senescence model system and possesses anti-aging activity, and such tested compound or composition would be a useful agent as a drug candidate for preventing or treating an age-related disease or disorder.
A method of identifying or detecting an agent as a drug candidate for preventing or treating an age-related disease or disorder, the method comprising screening one or more compounds or compositions for their anti-aging activity using a mutant yeast comprising a dysfunctional telomere as senescence model system, said screening comprising the steps of:
- (i) incubating said one or more compounds or compositions with yeast cells for a period of time under conditions where a cell cycle is arrested by telomere dysfunction;
- (ii) measuring the population of dead yeast cells using an apoptotic assay;
- and
- (iii) comparing the population of dead yeast cells obtained in step (ii) with the population of dead yeast cells obtained in a control experiment under the same conditions as in step (i) but in the absence of said one or more compounds or compositions,
- whereby the ability of a tested compound or composition to decrease the population of the dead yeast cells obtained in step (ii), as compared with the corresponding control experiment, would indicate that the tested compound or composition is capable of maintaining or extending G0 phase in a cell of the senescence model system and possesses anti-aging activity, and such tested compound or composition would be a useful agent as a drug candidate for preventing or treating an age-related disease or disorder.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.