skip to content
Advertisement
Premium

How a low-cost diabetes drug metformin can slow ageing in male monkeys

The scientists have said much more research would be required before metformin can be approved as an anti-ageing compound in humans.

diabetes drug, cell study, metformin, aging problems, Low-cost diabetes drug, male monkeys, monkey brain cells, inexpensive diabetes drugs, medication, journal Cell, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, Indian express newsMetformin is one of the most widely used drugs for treating type 2 diabetes. (File Photo)

Metformin, an inexpensive diabetes drug, slows ageing in male monkeys, particularly in their brain, according to a new study. The finding raises the possibility that the medication could one day be used to delay ageing in humans.

The study, ‘Metformin decelerates aging clock in male monkeys’, was published in the journal Cell on September 12. It was carried out by a team of 43 researchers based at the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, and other universities.

The monkeys, which received metformin daily, exhibited neuronal activity — the incessant flicker of electrical currents and transmissions in the brain — which resembled that of monkeys six years younger, the study found.

Story continues below this ad

What is metformin?

Metformin is one of the most widely used drugs for treating type 2 diabetes. It was first used for the purpose in France in the 1950s. It is a derivative of guanidine, a compound found in Goat’s Rue, which is an herbal medicine long used in Europe.

Researchers for a long time have known that metformin has effects beyond treating diabetes. For instance, they have found that it reduces the risk of cancer.

Over the years, several studies have shown that metformin slows ageing in worms, rodents, and flies. However, the drug’s effectiveness against ageing had not been tested directly in primates. That is why Guanghui Liu, a biologist at the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the lead author of the new study, decided to test the drug on monkeys.

How was the study carried out?

Liu and his colleagues gave metformin to 12 elderly male cynomolgus macaques (Macaca fascicularis). Another 16 elderly monkeys and 18 young or middle-aged animals served as a control group.

Story continues below this ad

Treated monkeys received the standard dose of metformin that is used to treat diabetes in humans every day. The animals took the drug for 40 months.

Throughout the study, the researchers took samples from 79 types of the monkeys’ tissues and organs, imaged the animals’ brains, and performed routine physical examinations, according to a report in the journal Nature.

They analysed the cellular activity in the samples, and then created a computational model to determine the tissues’ ‘biological age’, which can lag behind or exceed the animals’ age in years since birth, the report said.

What are the findings?

The researchers found that metformin slowed the biological ageing of many tissues from organs such as the lungs, kidneys, liver, skin and the brain’s frontal lobe. The drug also restrained chronic inflammation — a key symbol of ageing.

Story continues below this ad

The study revealed that metformin protects the brain by activating a protein called NRF2, which thwarts cellular damage caused by injury and inflammation.

Alex Soukas, a molecular geneticist at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, told Nature that the new study was the “most quantitative, thorough examination of metformin action that I’ve seen beyond mice”.

What happens next?

The scientists have said much more research would be required before metformin can be approved as an anti-ageing compound in humans.

Soukas told Nature that he would prefer to see a study which involves more animals. For now, Liu and his team have started a 120-person trial in collaboration with the biopharmaceutical company Merck in Germany, which developed and manufactures metformin, to test whether the drug slows ageing in humans.

Latest Comment
Post Comment
Read Comments
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement