Abstract

A New Protocol to Discover Novel Anti-Aging Compounds

Fumiaki Uchiumi, Takahiro Oyama, Kensuku Ozaki, Megumi Fukui, Hisui Ogawa, Yuki Sasaki, Haruki Tachibana, Chisato Fukushima, Makoto Fujikawa, Hideaki Abe, Steven Larsen and Sei-ichi Tanuma

Several natural and chemical compounds have been suggested to have effects as anti-aging drugs. For example, caloric restriction (CR) mimetics trans-resveratrol (Rsv) and 2-deoxy-D-glucose (2DG) are candidate compounds that can elongate life span of organisms, and they might also have roles in the regulation of telomere maintenance and mitochondrial functions. Recently, pharmaceutical medicaments rapamycin, an immunosuppressant and metformin, a medicine for diabetes, have been shown to act on the insulin/IGF1 signaling pathway. Therefore, they are also expected to have anti-aging effects. Here we propose a new protocol to discover novel compounds that can be used as a remedy to slow senescence and control aging in the aspect of promoter activities of telomere and energy metabolism-regulating factor encoding genes.