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The dispute concerns genes that make sirtuins, proteins involved in controlling cells’ metabolism. Because of their metabolic role, the sirtuins may mediate the 40-percent-longer life enjoyed by laboratory rats and mice put on a very low-calorie diet.
People cannot keep to such a low-fat diet, but drugs that activate sirtuin would in principle be a painless way for humans to add years of lean and healthy life. This idea took wing when resveratrol, a substance found in trace quantities in red wine, was reported to activate sirtuin. In 2008 the pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline paid $720 million for Sirtris, a start-up company trying to develop resveratrol-mimicking drugs that activate sirtuins.
Since then, several aspects of the sirtuin story have come under scientific challenge, including doubts as to whether resveratrol’s...