Ageing: Longevity hits a roadblock.

© 2011 par r000pert

Increased expression of sirtuin proteins has been shown to enhance lifespan in several organisms.

New data indicate that some of the reported effects of the increased expression of sirtuin proteins - a class of proteins that possess either histone deacetylase or mono-ribosyltransferase activity and regulate as such important biological pathways in bacteria, archaea and eukaryotes - may have been due to confounding factors in experimental design. Nature publishes a commentary by Johan Auwerx and Carles Canto (LISP - Laboratory of Integrative Systems Physiology ) on the high-profile paper by David Gems and colleagues, who contest the lifespan extension by SIRT1 overexpression.

David B. Lombard, Scott D. Pletcher, Carles Cantó & Johan Auwerx, Nature 477, 410–411, doi:10.1038/477410a (2011)