At Queensland University of Technology’s Cancer and Ageing Research Program there’s been a discovery that could change the way we live and when we die, free afternoon newspaper PerthNow reported.
Researchers believe they’ve found the holy grail ⎼ the fountain of youth, PerthNow reported.
QUT Professor Dr Ken O’Byrne said he felt the “hairs on the back of my neck” when he saw the discovery.
“We may be able to take a 60-year-old’s cells and make them 40,” he said. “It’s an anti-ageing drug to stop the DNA wrecking ball which causes cancer, heart disease, cholesterol, arthritis and Alzheimer’s – which 50 per cent of people over the age of 80 have.”
This drug could prevent them all, delay their onset or even reverse it, PerthNow reported.
QUT research scientist Associate Professor Derek Richard said the researchers “have a lead compound, but that seems to reverse the ageing process”.
Researchers need $5 million to turn the compound into a pill to be taken daily. They used the same science to make another breakthrough and created a new drug that could replace chemotherapy.
In pre-clinical trials, it has been effective against prostate cancer, drug-resistant lung cancer and melanoma.
“With our drugs, we could impact on millions of people every year,” Dr Richard said.
Clinical trials begin next year.
