New research on yeast provides hope of longevity vitamin pills for humans

A new study has found that a cousin of niacin prolongs life-span in yeast, much like calorie restriction does in animals. The discovery has brought boffins a step closer to the possibility of finding a vitamin for longevity in humans.

Washington, May 4 : A new study has found that a cousin of niacin prolongs life-span in yeast, much like calorie restriction does in animals. The discovery has brought boffins a step closer to the possibility of finding a vitamin for longevity in humans.

The study was conducted by a team of researchers led by Dr. Charles Brenner at Dartmouth Medical School.

The study builds on Brenner's prior discovery of the vitamin termed NR (nicotinamide riboside), a natural product found in milk. Like the B3 vitamin niacin, NR is a precursor to a versatile cellular factor NAD (nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide) that is vital for all life and is elevated by calorie restriction.

As part of this study, researchers provided the newly discovered vitamin to yeast cells, whose genes are easy to manipulate, to develop an intervention to elevating NAD.

Researchers found that the vitamin activated the yeast's anti-ageing gene product Sir2, which resembles sirtuins found in humans.

"It's surprising that no one was be able to elevate NAD with a small molecule before," Brenner said.

At the molecular level, elevating NAD to turn on Sir2 actually enabled the yeast to silence genes that are not supposed to be expressed. In any organism, not all genes are on at once. In yeast, there are sets of genes that Sir2 normally represses.

"We showed that that we could improve Sir2-dependent gene silencing with NR and increase the longevity of yeast grown in high glucose conditions," Brenner said.

Researchers found conditions in which wild-type cells can't accomplish normal gene silencing to test for Sir2 gene repression.

Researchers found that yeast cells formerly capable of dividing 13 times, divided over 23 times when given NR.

More testing remains for NR in humans.

"As a natural product found in milk, we expect the compound to be much safer than most drugs, and to be a more specific remedy than most vitamins," Brenner said.

ANI