Evaluating a potential anti-aging therapeutic poses a unique challenge. When the endpoint is natural death, assessing efficacy in a realistic timeframe requires a surrogate, but biomarkers for aging have been elusive.
"There are no biomarkers that are very good at predicting of subsequent longevity, and that is the gold standard of what a biomarker is," says Tom Johnson of the University of Colorado at Boulder. While clinical research still rests largely on physiological status such as diastolic function, some argue that genomics or proteomics may provide more precise molecular markers.
Researchers at the Washington University School of Medicine recently showed that diastolic function in members of the Calorie Restriction Society resembled that normally seen in people 15 years younger.1 Members of this society voluntarily adhere to a nutritionally balanced, low-calorie diet (1,300 to 2,000 per day). Diastolic function generally declines as people age, says Luigi Fontana, who headed the study. ...
