Aging and glycation: what’s new? Deglycation: a major scientific breakthrough.

Advances in knowledge about glycation should revolutionize the treatment of aging and age-related diseases.

Glycation was first described in 1911 by French physician and chemist Louis-Camille Maillard. Forgotten for years, this discovery – a chemical reaction which results from the attachment of sugars on proteins, a kind of caramelization – found its interest in the 1940s in food chemistry.

By leading to the mass marketing of food products rich in added sugars to control their attractiveness (appearance, taste), the glycation of food is one of the causes of “junk food”.

From the same period, in connection with the explosion of sugar consumption in the world, we observe a very sharp increase in the incidence of diabetes, an old but historically rather rare pathology, the consequences of which are those of an accelerated aging. The same phenomenon has recently been observed with Alzheimer’s disease.

At the heart of these pathologies, we find the glycation of certain proteins of the body resulting from an excess of sugar consumption.

Glycation inhibitors have proven to be good molecules for slowing the progression of diabetes. Carnosine (discovered in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century) then metformin (discovered in France in the 1920s) have established themselves as reference molecules in the fight against diabetes and indirectly against aging. Unfortunately, their mechanism of action, inhibition of glycation, limits their activity to prevention.

In the early 2000s, molecules capable of breaking the glycation reaction and therefore reversing its effects were discovered. Alagebrium (ALT 711) discovered in the United States is the first of these molecules but its development is stopped. Shortly after, a French team showed that rosmarinic acid, in certain forms, has properties that allow it to break cross links resulting from glycation, thus restoring the body’s proteins to some of their original properties (1).

This evidence of a deglycating effect has since been confirmed (2).

These discoveries, now known as deglycating molecules, are of great interest in the fight against accelerated aging and age-related diseases.

[Glycation is one of the major causes of aging. Resulting from the fixation of sugars on the proteins constituting the organism, glycation generates toxic compounds that cause cellular aging. Glycation is particularly involved in metabolic disorders, skin aging and cognitive decline.] [AGE BREAKER, patented nutritional supplements, based on rosmarinic acid, recognized by aging specialists around the world for their properties to reverse the effects of glycation.]