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metformin: the legendary potion

people often say that metformin is a "miracle drug". as a commonly used drug for the treatment of type 2 diabetes, it has more than 30 years of clinical experience. today, scientists have discovered that it can not only lower blood sugar, but also protect cardiovascular health, lose weight, improve blood lipid metabolism and reduce the risk of some cancers. this can't help but raise questions: what exactly is metformin? can it solve the problem of human aging?

the primate clock

in order to unravel the aging protection mechanism of metformin, a research team from the chinese academy of sciences chose to study primates. after eight years of exploration and cooperation, they confirmed that metformin can significantly delay aging, especially in protecting the brain cognitive function of elderly animals.

this study used cynomolgus monkeys as experimental subjects and divided them into a metformin group and a control group. after 40 months of follow-up observation, scientists found that the cynomolgus monkeys that took metformin for a long time showed significant anti-aging effects in many aspects, including reducing cerebral cortical atrophy and improving cognitive function.

the “reset” button for cell aging

interestingly, metformin's protective effect against primate aging does not rely on traditional blood sugar and metabolic regulation functions, but rather delays cellular aging by resetting the intrinsic program of cellular aging.

using multidimensional life-omics data and machine learning models, the researchers developed a primate aging clock that can indicate the biological age of primates, including multi-tissue dna methylation age and transcriptome age, as well as plasma protein and metabolite age.

the human journey of aging

this study revealed for the first time that the primate aging clock can be reversed by a single drug, marking an important step for humans to delay their own aging. in the future, metformin may become an important tool for delaying human aging and open up new ways to prevent and treat aging-related diseases.

conclusion

perhaps, we are witnessing the secret of aging being unlocked, and metformin will be the "miracle drug" of the future.