Red Wine Compound Could Boost Endurance

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He called the study an important sep in the development of new drugs to fight heart disease, Alzheimer's and age-relate other woes. "In five years, we should know if the results obtained in mice can be achieved in people," he said.

The compound's usefulness against diabetes remains unproven, Sinclair said. "A mouse is not a human," he said. "It would be amazing if it worked in humans. But we will have to wait and see."

Another expert expressed similar skepticism.

"It's clear that the authors of the Cell paper want to strongly argue that their data show a causal link between activation of SIRT1 and the effects of resveratrol," said Matt Kaeberlein, an assistant professor of pathology at the University of Washington. "While all of their data is consistent with this model, and the data is compelling, there really is no causal evidence that the effects of resveratrol in mice require SIRT1 activation," he said.

Kaeberlein suggested that to really test their theory, the researchers should have experimented with mice that did not have the SIRT1 gene, to see whether these mice would respond to resveratrol when fed a high-fat diet.

"Also, there is abundant evidence that resveratrol acts on proteins other than SIRT1, so it's premature to conclude that everything seen in this paper is due to effects on SIRT1," he said.

More information

There's more on resveratrol at Oregon State University (lpi.oregonstate.edu ).