A cost-effective diabetes medication slows down the aging process in male monkeys and is particularly effective in to delay the effects of aging on the brain , as a small study shows over more than three years 1 . The results leave the possibility that the widespread medication, Metformin , one day could be used to postpone age in humans.

The monkeys that received metformin daily showed a slower Age-related brain recovery as those who do not receive the drug. In addition, their neuronal activity of monkeys who were about six years younger (corresponding to about 18 human years) were similar, and the animals had an improved cognition and liver functions.

This study published on September 12th in Cell points out that, although death is inevitable, "age, as we know it, does not have to be," says Nir Barzilai, a Geroscientist at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City, who was not involved in the study.

a medicine in the medicine cabinet

metformin has been to reduce blood sugar levels in people with Type-2-Diabetes is used and is the second-line drug in the United States. The medication has long been known for To have effects beyond the treatment of diabetes , which has caused researchers to also examine it against diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular diseases and signs of aging.

The data of worms, rodents, flying and people who have taken the drug for diabetes treatment indicate that the drug may have anti-aging effects. However, his effectiveness against aging has not yet been tested directly on primates, and it is unclear whether its potential anti-aging effects are achieved by reducing blood sugar or by a separate mechanism.

This was conducted by Guanghui Liu, a biologist who examines aging at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, and his colleagues to test the drug at 12 older male goateumakia ( macaca fascicularis ); Another 16 older monkeys and 18 young or middle -aged animals served as a control group. The treated monkeys received the standard dose of metformin every day, which is also used for diabetes control in humans. The animals took the medication for over 40 months, which corresponds to people about 13 years.

In the course of the study, Liu and his colleagues rehearse from 79 tissue and organ types of the monkeys, depicted the animals' brains and carried out routine physical examinations. By analyzing the cellular activity in the rehearsals, the researchers were able to create a computer-aided model to create the "Biological Age" of the tissue, which has been behind or above the age of the animals in years .

slow down the clock

The researchers found that the medication slowed the biological aging of many tissue, including lungs, kidneys, liver, skin and the brain's frontal cortex. They also discovered that Chronic inflammation, an important feature of aging, reduced . The study was not designed to find out whether the medication extends the life of the animals; Earlier research has not found any influence on the lifespan 2 If 3 -the number of years that lives healthy.

This means that metformin "can effectively turn the organ age on monkeys," says Liu. The authors also identified a potential path through which the medication protects the brain: it activates a protein named NRF2 that protects against cell damage caused by injuries and inflammation.

This study is the "most quantitative and thorough examination of the effects of metformin that I have seen beyond mice," says Alex Soukas, a molecular geneticist at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. "It was a surprise to see how extensive the effects of the drug were about different types of tissue."

inexpensive medication, costly study

Although these results are encouraging, further research will be necessary to examine the drug before it can be validated as an anti-aging connection in humans, says Liu.

On the one hand, only 12 monkeys received the medication. Soukas therefore wants to see a repetition of this study or an investigation that includes more animals. In addition, the researchers tested only male animals, which Rafael de Cabo, a translational Geroscientist at the National Institute on Aging in Baltimore, Maryland, considers to be worrying. He recognizes that it is extremely expensive to carry out this type of long-term experiments, but adds that it is important to understand aging also in females, because There are often big differences between the sexes .

In the meantime, Liu and his colleagues A study with 120 people In cooperation with the Biopharmagenic company Merck in Darmstadt, Germany, started, the metformin develops and manufactures to test whether the medication is delayed in humans.

Barzilai has even greater ambitions: he and his colleagues have tried to collect $ 50 million in order to examine the medication in a study with 3,000 people aged 65 to 79 over 6 years. Research on metformin and other anti-aging candidates could one day mean that doctors can concentrate more on keeping people healthy as long as possible instead of treating illnesses, he says.