New diet trend: autophagy and ageing

① Few would turn down the chance to live longer, and ideas range from starvation diets to blood transfusions from the young.

② A paper published in Nature this week looks at autophagy (Greek for "self-eating"), the process by which cells break down and recycle parts for re-use.

③ Researchers found that mice engineered to have higher levels of beclin-1, an autophagy-associated protein, lived about 10% longer than unmodified cousins.

④ They were healthier, too, suffering fewer cancers and less heart and kidney damage.

The finding joins mounting evidence that autophagy is important in hindering ageing, though the mechanism remains unclear.

⑥ (One theory is that it recycles worn-out cellular components whose operation generates highly reactive free radicals—chemicals that play havoc with all sorts of cellular processes.)

⑦ The protein in question might one day make a target for drug development.

⑧ However, as with all drugs, the treatment will be in the dose—too much autophagy is as bad as too little.