WASHINGTON, Sept. 30 (Xinhua) -- Researchers have identified a combination drug treatment that can substantially prolong fruit flies' lifespan and may one day be helpful at preventing age-related diseases in people.
The study published on Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences showed that a triple drug combination could extend the lifespan of fruit flies by 48 percent.
The three drugs are all already in use as medical treatments: lithium as a mood stabiliser, trametinib as a cancer treatment and rapamycin as an immune system regulator, according to the study.
"By studying fruit flies which age much more rapidly than people, we have found that a combination drug treatment targeting different cellular processes may be an effective way to slow down the ageing process," said the study's co-lead author, Jorge Castillo-Quan with Harvard Medical School.
The three drugs all act on different cellular signalling pathways that form together the nutrient sensing network, which is conserved across evolution from worms and flies all the way to humans. This network adjusts what the body is doing in response to changes in nutrient levels.
The three drugs act on different proteins of this network to slow the ageing process and delay the onset of age-related death, according to the study.
The researchers gave fruit flies doses of lithium, trametinib and rapamycin, separately and in combination. Each drug individually extended lifespan by an average of 11 percent, while pairing two drugs extended lifespan by about 30 percent.
When the three drugs were combined, the fruit flies lived 48 percent longer than flies in a control group that were not given the treatment, according to the study.
The researchers also found that the drugs appeared to complement each other to reduce side effects. For instance, rapamycin has undesirable effects on fat metabolism, but lithium appeared to cancel out this effect when the two drugs were given together.
The researchers are planning to make experiments in more complex animals, such as mice, to gauge the effects on the entire body before eventually progressing to human trials.
"This may be possible by combining the drugs we're investigating with other promising drugs, but there is a long way to go before we will be able to roll out effective treatments," said the study's principal investigator Linda Partridge from University College London.
