The longevity revolution is upon us!!

A potential longevity-enhancing drug has passed its final animal testing challenge, pushing closer to reality the dream of all-purpose drugs against diseases of aging.

Mice given the new drug, called SRT1720, gorged on high-fat food for four months without gaining weight or developing diabetes, and ran twice as far on a treadmill as their control-group counterparts. Similar drugs are expected to follow down the pipeline.

"If you look at all the things that have fundamentally changed medicine in the last 150 years, washing hands would be one, and antibiotics another. This could be the third," said study co-author Philip Lambert, a pharmacologist at Sirtris Pharmaceuticals, the drug's developer. "If you could keep your health for another 10 or 15 years, that would be amazing."

SRT1720 activates one of several enzymes that regulate the function of mitochondria — cellular power generators that convert glucose into chemical energy. The wearing down of these generators has been linked to heart disease, Alzheimer's disease, diabetes, cancer and other age-related afflictions.

http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/11/next-generation.html