In a serendipitous discovery made while researchers at Washington University School of Medicine (Missouri, USA) were randomly screening 19 drugs approved for treating a variety of disorders in humans on roundworms (C. elegans), Dr. Kornfield and colleagues found that injecting roundworms with an anticonvulsant medication — a drug that prevents seizures — has the unanticipated effect of extending the worms’ lifespan by double-digit proportions.
Roundworms that received one of three anticonvulsant drugs used for humans lived far longer than their untreated counterparts. Ethosuximide extended the roundworms’ lifespan by more than 17% — from 17 days to 20 days; and trimethadione extended the lifespan by 47%, to 25 days. 3,3-diethyl-2-pyrrolidionone (DEABL) also extended lifespan, but to a lesser extent than the other two. The medication-treated worms all also retained their youthful functions longer than normal: they continued to display fast body movement and fast pumping of mouthparts in their latter stages of life.
Because anticonvulsant drugs affect nerve signals, the researchers’ observations suggest that the nervous system influences the aging process. As longevity extenders, the anti-seizure medications neither operated on caloric restriction (because the worms were fed abundantly) nor as anti-bacterials (because pathogenic bacteria remained present in their environment). The researchers speculate that anticonvulsant drugs stimulate the neuromuscular system of the roundworms, and affect neurons involved with egg laying and body movement, causing the worms to lay eggs earlier and become more active at an earlier stage.
Additionally, the University researchers observed that sensory inputs regulating the level of insulin signaling inside the body were altered, which then in-turn regulates longevity. Analysis of the treated worms’ stages of aging indicated delays in the aging process directly resulting from the anticonvulsant drugs.
