The Fountain of Youth?

Juan Ponce de Leon (1460-1521) spent his life searching for the mythical fountain of youth. Perhaps it is in St. Louis, MO rather than Florida and he was looking in the wrong place... A recent paper in Science (Evason, et al.) found that ethosuximide, trimethadione, and 3,3-diethyl-2-pyrrolidinone (all anti-seizure medications) increased the life-span of the C. elegans worm. See the full abstract below... What about topical versions of these medicines for the skin?

Science. 2005 Jan 14;307(5707):258-62.

Anticonvulsant medications extend worm life-span.

Evason K, Huang C, Yamben I, Covey DF, Kornfeld K.

Genetic studies have elucidated mechanisms that regulate aging, but there has been little progress in identifying drugs that delay aging. Here, we report that ethosuximide, trimethadione, and 3,3-diethyl-2-pyrrolidinone increase mean and maximum life-span of Caenorhabditis elegans and delay age-related declines of physiological processes, indicating that these compounds retard the aging process. These compounds, two of which are approved for human use, are anticonvulsants that modulate neural activity. These compounds also regulated neuromuscular activity in nematodes. These findings suggest that the life-span-extending activity of these compounds is related to the anticonvulsant activity and implicate neural activity in the regulation of aging.