THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, August 6, 1996 TAG: 9608060301
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DEBRA GORDON, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: 127 lines
Eastern Virginia Medical School is recruiting three internationally known researchers in geriatrics - a move that, if successful, could catapult the school's Glennan Center for Geriatrics to prominence in the field of research into aging.
On Monday, the three scientists, all professors at American universities, were in Norfolk as part of a recruitment process that may take months. All three study the process of aging, searching for ways to prolong life by minimizing cell damage in the body.
Their research, although conducted in fruit flies, rats and monkeys, has potential for humans - by finding ways to increase human life span, and improving the quality of those later years.
The three scientists - Richard Weindruch of the University of Wisconsin, and Rajindar Sohal and William Orr, both of Southern Methodist University in Dallas - have published their research in leading scientific journals, and have received millions of dollars to pursue their work from the federally funded National Institute on Aging.
Although Weindruch works separately from Orr and Sohal, the trio have collaborated on research projects.
Having them on the school's faculty ``would have a tremendous impact,'' said Glennan Center director Dr. William B. Ershler.
``Right now, we have created a geriatrics center with very fine clinical investigators; now we need to get the basic science built up,'' Ershler said. ``Recruitment of scientists of their caliber would be a coup for any center on aging.''
The Glennan Center, created with a $2 million gift from Virginia Glennan Ferguson, a Virginia Beach resident, officially opened July 1. It will eventually includespecialty clinics to treat the problems of aging, like memory loss and osteoporosis, and a strong research component.
Ershler came to Norfolk from the University of Wisconsin, lured here by the opportunity to create an aging program from the ground up. He's hoping that Weindruch, Sohal and Orr will also find that prospect attractive.
But bringing these three researchers to the medical school would be very expensive, he said, requiring an additional endowment.
The scientists want assurances that their salary and research will be funded even if they don't land any new grants, Ershler said.
It's a cost the medical school couldn't meet from patient revenues, he said.
So Ershler said he would try to raise the money privately, hoping for another endowment like the $1 million donation that funded his salary. Ideally, he said, the money would be raised within the next six months.
The research these three scientists conduct is particularly timely in light of the nation's demographic trends. Within the next 20 years, 72 million baby boomers will hit 65. The problems associated with their aging are expected to severely tax the country's health care system. Finding ways to help these people live healthier lives is a major impetus in aging research.
On Monday, the three visiting scientists conducted a seminar for EVMS faculty and staff, a common practice in the academic recruitment process.
Though their work differs in some areas, it converges around the same hypothesis: Aging is linked to the damage that highly reactive molecules of oxygen in the body, called free radicals, inflict on living cells.
Free radicals are a byproduct of cell division, which attack our DNA, proteins and the membranes of cells, contributing to the tissue breakdown associated with aging.
This hypothesis is one of the leading theories in aging research.
It works like this: As we eat and breathe, our cells take in nutrients and oxygen, converting them to energy. In the process, they also create molecules called free radicals, which spin off and damage other cells, much like a loose ball bearing would batter a car's engine.
This punishing process is called ``oxidant stress.'' The damage accumulates with age and is eventually irreversible, especially in brain cells. That may be why so many neurological diseases, like Parkinson's and Alzheimer's, affect the elderly, Weindruch said.
Said Sohal, ``People don't simply die of old age; people die quite often of age-associated degenerative diseases.''
Those diseases may be caused by the damage that free radicals inflict on other cells, the scientists said, so the goal is to reduce the damage.
One way is to reduce the amount of free radicals that are released - perhaps with a strict diet.
Two weeks ago, Sohal and Weindruch published a study in the journal Science showing that when rats were put on severely restricted diets - about half their normal calories - they lived longer. The diets are carefully planned, however, to guard against malnutrition.
Sohal isn't sure why the rats lived longer on less food. One reason may be that fewer calories put less stress on the cells, thus creating fewer free radicals.
It's like the idle in your car, he said. If you run it at a high rate, it damages the engine. Lower the idle, and there's less stress on the engine.
Another approach to limiting damage from free radicals is to load up the body with ``anti-oxidants,'' enzymes that gobble up free radicals like Pac-Man in the computer game. Common anti-oxidants include Vitamin E and beta-carotene.
This is Orr's approach. Using gene therapy, he created a special breed of fruit fly with an extra gene that makes lots of anti-oxidant enzymes. These special ``transgenic'' flies live 30 percent longer - and they live healthier.
Of course, no one necessarily wants longer-lived flies, but the possibilities in humans are tremendous, the scientists say.
Ideally, scientists would locate these ``anti-oxidant'' genes in humans and develop drugs that copy their actions. These drugs could ``turn up the power'' of the body's anti-oxidants and slow the aging process, Sohal said.
Discovering how calorie restriction affects aging, Weindruch said, could lead to drugs that mimic the effect of a low-calorie diet without the hunger pangs.
Equally important, the scientists say, are the implications this research has for treating several age-related diseases, like diabetes and Alzheimer's disease.
``These diseases are increasingly being recognized as products of the same underlying factors as aging,'' Sohal said - the effects of oxidative stress.
Find ways to reduce the stress, and you also find ways to treat, or even eliminate, the diseases, he said. ILLUSTRATION: BILL TIERNAN photos
The Virginian-Pilot
William Orr
Age 47; associate professor at Southern Methodist University
Research focus: The effect of free radicals on aging. Free radicals
are byproducts of cell division that attack our DNA, proteins and
the membranes of cells.
Richard Weindruch
Age 46; professor at University of Wisconsin
Research focus: The effect of calorie reduction on aging.
Rajindar Sohal
Age 60; professor at Southern Methodist University
Research focus: The effect of free radicals and calorie reduction on
aging. by CNB