Molecules that may keep you young — and alive

Even though the search for the Fountain of Youth dates back to the ancient Greeks, the quest to live forever continues today. Indeed, it has been said that the ability to slow the ageing process would be the most important medical discovery in the modern era.

A new study published in the journal Oncotarget by researchers from Concordia and the Quebec-based biotech company Idunn Technologies may have uncovered an important factor: plant extracts containing the six best groups of anti-ageing molecules ever seen.

For the study, the research team combed through Idunn Technologies’ extensive biological library, conducting more than 10,000 trials to screen for plant extracts that would increase the chronological lifespan of yeast.

Why yeast? Cellularly speaking, ageing progresses similarly in both yeast and humans. It’s the best cellular model to understand how the anti-ageing process takes place.

“In total, we found six new groups of molecules that decelerate the chronological ageing of yeast,” says Vladimir Titorenko, the study’s senior author and a professor in the Department of Biology at Concordia.

He carried out the study with a group of Concordia students and Éric Simard, the founder of Idunn Technologies, which is named for the goddess of rejuvenation in Norse mythology.

This has important implications not only for slowing the ageing process, but also for preventing certain diseases associated with ageing, including cancer.

“Rather than focus on curing the individual disease, interventions on the molecular processes of ageing can simultaneously delay the onset and progression of most age-related disorders,” says Simard, who notes that these new molecules will soon be available in commercial products.

“This kind of intervention is predicted to have a much larger effect on healthy ageing and life expectancy than can be attained by treating individual diseases."

“These results also provide new insights into mechanisms through which chemicals extracted from certain plants can slow biological ageing,” says Titorenko.