The glucose that our bodies use to provide energy has the unwanted side effect of causing protein molecules to form links and clump together. We can see the effect of these protein clumps in the brown flecks that appear on old people's skin and teeth and on their corneas. Because people suffering from diabetes have excess glucose in their bodies they are particularly vulnerable to the effects of protein cross-linking
An invisible side effect is that protein cross-linking also causes joints, arteries and heart tissue to stiffen. When this happens old people find it increasingly difficult to move quickly and their hearts cannot pump blood around the body so efficiently.
Scientists at the Kenneth Warren Laboratories in the USA are carrying out research on a class of drugs called 'breakers'. The effect of these drugs is to break up the cross-linked proteins and when they were administered to elderly dogs and monkeys the animal's circulation showed dramatic improvement and the dogs regained the muscular vitality of puppies while the monkeys displayed vigour typical of a much younger animals.
Research is now planned to develop and test similar drugs for people though it will take several years of further work before breakers for human use are available.
