俄科学家研制出"不老药"

    俄罗斯莫斯科的一位生物能量学教授近日宣布，他已研制出一种能够有效延缓衰老的“不老药”，并有望于几年内上架销售。这位科学家用40年的时间研制出一种抗氧化剂，能够有效抑制氧分子对人体的有害影响。人体中的氧分子有99%的可能变成无害的水，还有1%的可能变成超氧化物并转化为有毒物质。他研制的这种抗氧化剂会阻止氧分子转化为有害物，从而降低年龄增长对人体细胞产生的影响，达到延缓衰老的目的。科学家称，这种抗氧化剂不仅可以极大地延长人的寿命，还能使人一直保持年轻、健康的状态。目前这种“不老药”已经在实验室中的动物实验中取得成功，研究人员准备下一步进行人体实验，顺利的话将在几年后在药店上架销售。

    A Russian scientist claims to have discovered an anti-oxidant that can stop aging.

    Vladimir Skulachyov, a bioenergetics professor in Moscow, says he has been working on this for more than 40 years. The treatment is based on how oxygen reacts in the body and says the difficult part has been to try and prevent side effects.

    "99% of the time oxygen turns into harmless water, but there's that one per cent that turns into a super-oxide that later turns into very poisonous elements," said Skulachyov.

    The Russian scientist says the medicine will go on sale in just a few years. The treatment looks complicated and it certainly is. For Skulachyov, it is almost a life's work. Two more years of testing and the doctor thinks he will have finally cracked the enigma 1 of aging.

    He has been working to perfect his treatment for more than 40 years.

    Colleagues around the world think Dr Skulachyov is on to something.

    Nobel Prize winner Dr. Gunter Blobel M.D., Ph.D. at Rockefeller University, believes Skulachyov's theories look very realistic. "It has been shown that oxidative damage is huge. But we do not have an anti-oxidant of the type that Skulachyov has developed. He coined the term bioenergetics. He is clearly the world's best bio-chemist and bio-energetic scientist," Blobel stated.

    The compound has already undergone animal testing and the results appear promising 2. Rats that have been given the drug are much more lively than those not treated.

    "Finally, we hope that we will manage to convince people that a single pill treats many threats of aging. So, it must be doing something with the aging itself," biologist Maksim Skulachyov explains. "Then if authorities will accept this logic 3, maybe we could somehow market it as an anti-aging drug."After success with eye drops in animals, the inventor tried the medicine on his own cataract 4. Six months later, his physician told him his cataract was gone.

    Thousands are queuing to take part in the clinical trials, which have just begun. But it will be a few years before Dr Skulachyov's discovery reaches the shelves of an average pharmacy 5.

    Some have already dubbed 6 the drug a panacea 7. And if it lives up to its promise, the treatment should have an effect on the diseases of aging and bring with it the prospect 8 of a longer and better quality of life.