Wine Extract Keeps Mice Fat and Healthy
By
SETH BORENSTEIN
WASHINGTON (AP) - Huge amounts of a red wine extract
seemed to help obese mice eat a high-fat diet
and still live a long and healthy life, suggests
a new study that some experts are calling "landmark"
research.
The big question is, can it work the same magic
in humans?
Scientists say it's far too early to start swilling
barrels of red wine. But some are calling the
latest research promising and even "spectacular."
The study by the Harvard Medical School and the
National Institute of Aging shows that heavy doses
of red wine extract lowers the rate of diabetes,
liver problems and other fat-related ill effects
in obese mice.
Fat-related deaths dropped 31 percent for obese
mice on the supplement, compared to untreated
obese mice, and the treated mice also lived long
after they should have, the study said.
Astoundingly, the organs of the fat mice that
got the wine extract looked normal when they shouldn't
have, said study lead author Dr. David Sinclair
of Harvard Medical School. And Sinclair said other
preliminary work still being done in the lab shows
the wine ingredient has promise in lengthening
the life span of normal-sized mice, too.
Sinclair has a financial stake in the research.
He is co-founder of a pharmaceutical firm, Sirtris
Pharmaceuticals Inc. of Cambridge, Mass., which
is testing the safety of using the extract on
humans for treatment of diabetes.
For years, red wine has been linked to numerous
health benefits. But the new study, published
online in the journal Nature on Thursday, shows
that mammals given ultrahigh doses of the red
wine extract resveratrol can get the good effects
of cutting calories without having the pain of
actually doing it.
"If we're right about this, it would mean
you could have the benefit of restricting calories
without having to feel hungry," Sinclair
said. "It's the Holy Grail of aging research."
Resveratrol, produced when plants are under stress,
are found in the skin of grapes and in other plants,
including peanuts and some berries.
The resveratrol-treated 55 obese mice on a high-calorie
diet (one scientist called it a "McDonald's
diet") are not only about as healthy as normal
mice, they are as agile and active on exercise
equipment as their lean cousins, showing what
can be considered a normal quality of life, higher
than usual for obese mice, said study co-author
Rafael de Cabo of the National Institute on Aging.
"These fat old mice can perform as well on
this skill test as young lean mice," Sinclair
said.
The only major body measurement that didn't improve
- aside from weight - was cholesterol and that
didn't seem to matter in the overall health of
the mice, Sinclair said.
The study is so promising that the aging institute
this week is strongly considering a repeat of
the same experiment with rhesus monkeys, coming
the closest to humans, after successful resveratrol
experiments on yeast, worms, fruit flies and now
mice, said institute director Dr. Richard Hodes.
Hodes cautions that it's too early for people
to start taking non-regulated resveratrol supplements
because safety issues haven't been addressed adequately.
He pointed to past hyped medical treatments, such
as estrogen, that turned out to cause more harm
than good.
Sirtris Pharmaceuticals is working on a high-dose
resveratrol pill that unlike unregulated supplements
on the market now, would be used as a drug and
require Food and Drug Administration approval,
said company chief executive officer Dr. Christoph
Westphal. And that development and federal approval
is about five years away, he said.
Sinclair's results are so promising that he rushed
the study into the science journal while the obese
mice are still alive, not waiting several more
weeks or months until they die. That raises some
issues, including specific figures about mortality,
but is understandable, said outside experts. The
obese mice still lived past the median age for
mice of their weight.
Even would-be competitors are praising the study.
"It's a fairly spectacular result,"
said University of Wisconsin medical professor
Dr. Richard Weindruch, who co-founded another
biotech company that looks at the genetics of
aging and drugs that could expand life spans.
"People will go to McDonald's and afterwards
they'll do super-sized resveratrol."
"This is fantastic," said Brown University
molecular biology professor Stephen Helfand, who
was the first reviewer for the journal Nature
and not part of the team. "This is a historic
landmark contribution."
Helfand said he won't be taking red wine extract
supplements - but he has put his elderly mother
on them. He said he's waiting to see if there
are long-term ill effects for humans. Mice, he
said, are good initial test subjects for human
drugs because their bodies function more similarly
to humans than differently. However, he added
that those differences can prove crucial.
Sinclair said he takes resveratrol supplements,
but doesn't recommend it for others. Sinclair's
mice took such high doses of resveratrol that
it would be the equivalent of an adult drinking
100 bottles of wine daily.
Resveratrol works by spurring activity and regrowth
in cells' mitochondria, which Sinclair called
"the energy powerhouses of the cell."
Some scientists, such as Weindruch and Hodes,
worry that the research may encourage people to
forget about their diets and wait for a red wine
cure-all that may never come.
"It's not an excuse to overeat," Sinclair
said. But he added that for mice at least, this
shows you can be "fat, happy, healthy and
vigorous."