Forever-young drug to extend life by 10 yrs?
An elixir of life could soon be a reality, as scientists have discovered a new drug which they believe could reverse the effects of premature ageing and extend human life by over 10 years.
In remarkable experiments, a team of US scientists took skin cells from children with Hutchinson-Gilford Progeria Syndrome (HGPS), a rare genetic condition in which babies rapidly grow old and die at around 12 years, and turned them healthy again by using rapamycin, known as the “forever-young drug”.
Rapamycin, used to suppress the immune system in organ transplants, has been created from a bacterium found in the soil on Easter Island — which lies more than 2,000 miles off Chile, the Daily Mail reported.
Past research has hinted that the drug may have the power to extend human lifespan by more than a decade.
In the latest research, the scientists, who included eminent genetic scientist Dr Francis Collins and collaborators from Harvard Medical School, studied the effect of the drug on skin cells from three children with HGPS. The disease causes levels of a mutant protein called progerin to build up inside every cell of the body, producing defects and rapidly ageing the cells. Treating them with the drug flushed the poisonous protein out of the cells and reversed the defects, effectively making them healthy again. The cells also lived longer.
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Hilton’s stalker gets 2-year jail
London: A stalker who attempted to break into hotel heiress Paris Hilton’s Hollywood home has been sentenced to two years in prison.
The ruling comes after Nathan Lee Parada, 31, was convicted of first-degree attempted residential burglary back in April, reported Daily Mail online. It took a jury less than an hour to find Parada guilty of the offence during the trial after he was found on the 30-year-old socialite’s property staring into one of her windows. Hilton’s then-boyfriend, Cy Waits, detained Parada at gunpoint until the police arrived. While being interviewed by detectives, Parada said he wanted to steal as much as he could from the house and planned to move to a deserted island after the burglary, according to testimony in the case. He also told detectives he found Hilton’s Hollywood Hills home after buying a map showing stars’ homes, and waited outside for hours before trying to break in.
—PTI
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