Das Gehirn von Affen, denen ein billiges Diabetesmedikament verabreicht wurde, alterte langsamer. Eine tägliche Dosis des weit verbreiteten Medikaments Metformin bewahrte die kognitiven Fähigkeiten und verzögerte den Abbau einiger Gewebe.

I’m the reporter who wrote the story; feel free to ask any questions about the study, how I reported it, or anything else you think of.

This is a big deal because this drug is already FDA-approved, widely-prescribed with a safety profile that’s well-documented, and cheap. Note that this experiment was only conducted in 12 male monkeys (primate studies are very expensive), but it’s promising data that could help launch the first clinical trials to investigate metformin’s use as an anti-ageing compound.

From the story:

>A low-cost diabetes drug slows ageing in male monkeys and is particularly effective at delaying [the effects of ageing on the brain](https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-01282-1), finds a small study that tracked the animals for more than three years[^(1)](https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-02938-w#ref-CR1). The results raise the possibility that the widely used medication, [metformin](https://www.nature.com/articles/522265a), could one day be used to postpone ageing in humans.

>Monkeys that received metformin daily showed slower [age-associated brain decline](https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-02784-w) than did those not given the drug. Furthermore, their neuronal activity resembled that of monkeys about six years younger (equivalent to around 18 human years) and the animals had enhanced cognition and preserved liver function.

>This study, published in *Cell* on 12 September, helps to suggest that, although dying is inevitable, “ageing, the way we know it, is not”, says Nir Barzilai, a geroscientist at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City, who was not involved in the study.

I’ve heard about this but I am still a bit skeptical.

This work similarly to Ozempic? As I heard sameish things around that but attributed the better health to the lack of obesity