04.28.08 - Elixir Pharmaceuticals, Inc., announced today issuance of U.S. Patent No. 7,351,542, which covers the discovery of new and existing chemical entities that modulate the activity of a human sirtuin, SIRT 2. Elixir's rights to this patent were made possible through an exclusive license.Sirtuins are a class of enzymes believed to play a significant role in diseases of aging, including type 2 diabetes and obesity. SIRT 2 is one of the seven human SIRT (or sirtuin) enzymes. Elixir co-founder Dr. Lenny Guarente of MIT and others have shown that the down-regulation of SIRT 2 elicits positive effects on metabolism. Therefore, pharmaceutical compounds that block the activity of this enzyme could have clinical utility to treat a range of metabolic diseases, such as diabetes and obesity. This new patent adds to Elixir's broad portfolio of issued patents and patent applications related to the development of sirtuin-based therapeutics... [PDF] Elixir Pharmaceuticals' Press Release -
