Wonderdrug ' Metformin', the next breakthrough in anti-aging.

Common Diabetes drug Metformin could be next breakthrough in Anti-aging.

Metformin Tablet

Metformin is a drug commonly used to treat type 2 diabetes. But new research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) finds the medication may also slow the aging process and increase lifespan.

Metformin belongs to a class of drugs known as biguanides and has been now been used for nearly 60 years for treating and preventing type 2 DM.

Down the lane, it has gained interest in treating other medical conditions.

A recent study shows that metformin directly antagonizes cancer cell growth through its actions on complex I of the mitochondrial electron transport chain (ETC).

In 2010 studies  by scientists at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), and led by Dr. Philip Dennis, revealed a significantly lower lung cancer tumor  burden in mice that were given metformin and were exposed to NKK, a nicotine-derived nitrosamine - the most prevalent tobacco carcinogen.

In the same year, investigators in Japan demonstrated that individuals without diabetes who took metformin had a considerably reduced rate of rectal aberrant crypt foci, a surrogate marker of colorectal cancer. Trial participants who received metformin had a mean of 5.11 foci versus 7.56 among those who took a placebo (control group).

Clinical trials are  also underway for the role of Metformin in ovarian cancer and melanoma.

The data indicate that metformin inhibits cancer cell proliferation by suppressing the production of mitochondrial-dependent metabolic intermediates required for cell growth, and that metabolic adaptations that bypass mitochondrial-dependent biosynthesis may provide a mechanism of tumor cell resistance to biguanide activity.

A new study by Cardiff University, UK, involving over 180,000 people, reveals that the drug could also increase the lifespan of those individuals who are non-diabetics. The trials found that when other factors were taken into account, those given the drug lived 15 per cent longer than those who were not on it – which could mean an extra three years’ lifespan for the average pensioner.Diabetes has been shown to reduce the average lifespan by about eight years.

Now, a research team led by Wouter De Haes of the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KU Leuven) in Belgium finds that metformin may be useful for halting the aging process.

This is not the only study to flag the anti-aging potential of metformin. Last year, Medical News Today reported on a study by researchers from the National Institutes of Aging (NIA), which found that mice treated with metformin increased their lifespan by nearly 40 per cent and their bones were also stronger.

The team found that metformin increased the number of toxic molecules released in the worms' cells, which they were surprised to find boosted their long-term strength and longevity.

On testing metformin in the roundworm C. elegans, the researchers found the worms showed no wrinkling, aged slower and stayed healthier for longer.
Image credit: Wouter De Haes

"As they age, the worms get smaller, wrinkle up and become less mobile. But worms treated with metformin show very limited size loss and no wrinkling. They not only age slower, but they also stay healthier longer," says Haes.

The FDA has given the go-ahead to see if a common drug used to treat diabetes could increase human life span, and perhaps more importantly, health span.

The study, called Targeting Aging With Metformin or TAME, is being funded by the American Federation for Aging Research or AFAR.

Dr. Nir Barzilai, director at the Institute for Aging Research at Einstein College of Medicine in New York, will be the lead researcher in the study. Barzilai is also the scientific co-director of AFAR.

According to the Telegraph, the drug could allow humans to live to 120 and enjoy the health of a 50-year-old at age 70.

A baby girl born today is now expected to life to an average age of 82.8 years and a boy to 78.8 years, according to the Office for National Statistics. But if the results seen in animals are reproduced in humans, lifespan could increase by nearly 50 per cent.

Professor Lithgow believes that  “If we were to cure all cancers it would only raise life expectancy by around three years, because something else is coming behind the cancer, but if we could slow down the aging process you could dramatically improve how long people can live,” he said. 

Stephanie Lederman, executive director of the American Federation for Aging Research in New York, who is also involved in the trial added: “The perception is that we are all looking for a fountain of youth.
“We want to avoid that; what we’re trying to do is increase health span, not look for eternal life.”

However if their trial performs as promised, experts say slowing ageing would be a ‘public health revolution.’

References:

"Metformin Prevents Tobacco Carcinogen-Induced Lung Tumorigenesis"
Regan M. Memmott, Jose R. Mercado, Colleen R. Maier, Shigeru Kawabata, Stephen D. Fox, Phillip A. Dennis
Cancer Prevention Research September 2010 3; 1066
doi: 10.1158/1940-6207.CAPR-10-0055

"Metformin Suppresses Colorectal Aberrant Crypt Foci in a Short-term Clinical Trial"
Kunihiro Hosono, Hiroki Endo, Hirokazu Takahashi, Michiko Sugiyama, Eiji Sakai, Takashi Uchiyama, Kaori Suzuki, Hiroshi Iida, Yasunari Sakamoto, Kyoko Yoneda, Tomoko Koide, Chikako Tokoro, Yasunobu Abe, Masahiko Inamori, Hitoshi Nakagama, Atsushi Nakajima
Cancer Prevention Research September 2010 3; 1077
doi: 10.1158/1940-6207.CAPR-10-0186

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26625127

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24841876

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24862830

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/277679.php

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/12017112/Worlds-first-anti-ageing-drug-could-see-humans-live-to-120.html