The Agenda 👇
News bulletin 📰
The glucose theory of ageing
Recent funding in longevity 💰
Upcoming events 📅
Jobs in longevity 🧑💼
1/ News bulletin 📰
🐖 Cellular activity in pig organs restored one hour after the animals died - research challenges the idea that cardiac death is irreversible
🧬 Largest systematic review of skin ageing genes published in Nature - identifying 56 skin ageing phenotypes, grouped into 4 morphological categories
🎙️ Steve Horvath conducts wide-ranging interview with Lifespan.io - and provides clues into what Altos Labs are working on
🧠 Nanobodies identified that can destroy α-synuclein aggregates - results hold promise for therapeutic development in Parkinson’s Disease
🪱 Start-up Vitalunga developing mitophagy-activating compounds - initial work will focus on rejuvenating cells in worm models
2/ The glucose theory of ageing
For many years, ageing has been considered the consequence of accumulating damage due to an excessive production of reactive oxygen species (ROS), during the metabolisation of glucose. This theory is based on the concept that mitochondria are one of the main sources of oxidative stress and that mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) display a greater rate of mutation than nuclear DNA. Once a theoretical mtDNA mutation threshold has been reached, irreversible oxidative damage is formed, which cascades into mitochondrial metabolic dysfunction, further accelerating the oxidative stress production. Although this theory is one of the most popular explanations for the root of ageing, several experimental rodent models of antioxidant manipulation have failed to affect lifespan. Moreover, antioxidant supplementation clinical trials have been largely disappointing. So, what’s all the fuss around Metformin?
Metformin has centuries of European history, having gained original popularity as the medicinal herb Galega officinalis (also known as goat’s rue). It was identified as good for digestive health and to treat urinary problems and other common ailments. Then in 1918, a certain C. K. Watanabe discovered that one of its ingredients, guanidine, could lower blood sugar. Medicines containing guanidine, such as metformin and phenformin, were then developed to treat diabetes, but soon fell out of favour due to the serious side effects of phenformin, and by the discovery of insulin. Metformin was later rediscovered and approved as a treatment for diabetes in the 1950s and has since become one of the most widely prescribed medications on earth.
For decades it has been known that metformin does more than lower blood sugar for diabetics, it also confers cardiovascular disease risk reduction and can help people with diabetes lose excess weight. Preliminary analysis of results from MILES (Metformin In Longevity Study) suggest that metformin may induce anti-aging transcriptional changes; however, it remains controversial as to whether metformin is protective in those without diabetes.
Studies that look at how metformin may directly slow down ageing investigate the role of this medication in hormesis. Hormesis is a process whereby minor stress can trigger functions inside cells that help repair damage and protect cells. This can happen with physical activity, fasting, and other methods that put the body under mild stress.
Recent research suggests metformin may cause a hormesis by activating an enzyme called AMP-activated protein kinase. This enzyme breaks down excess lipids and sugars in the body, that may otherwise become harmful to the body.
Because most of the research regarding metformin included only people with diabetes or pre-diabetes, it remains unclear whether these potential benefits are limited to people with those conditions, or whether people without diabetes may derive benefit as well.
The Targeting Aging with Metformin (TAME) trial has been designed to address this precise question. The trial is a series of 6-year clinical trials at 14 leading research institutions across the US that will engage over 3,000 individuals between the ages of 65-79. Led by AFAR Scientific Director Nir Barzilai, MD, these trials will test whether those taking metformin experience delayed development or progression of age-related chronic diseases, such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, and dementia.
Nonetheless, if you have diabetes and need metformin to help lower your blood sugar, its other potential health benefits are unambiguous. If you don’t have diabetes however, the therapy’s role in preventing metabolic disease and possibly even slowing ageing, is far less clear.
3/ Recent funding in longevity 💰
Genetika+ awarded €17.5m of European Innovation Council grant funding
Availity to acquire Diameter Health, a leader in clinical data processing
[Updated] Biofourmis raises $20m from Intel in Series D Extension
4/ Upcoming events 📅
🇩🇰 The 9th annual Aging Research and Drug Discovery Meeting is taking place this year in Copenhagen, Denmark between 29th August - 2nd September. This non-profit gathering will include global thought-leaders sharing their insights into ageing and the future of drug discovery in the field.
🇮🇪 The Longevity Summit Dublin takes place this year on 18th-20th of September in Ireland! Conference will feature some of the world’s renowned longevity experts like George Church (Professor of Genetics, Harvard Medical School), Aubrey de Grey (Co-Founder, SENS Research Foundation), Evelyne Yehudit Bischof (Associate professor, internal medicine specialist, Longevity physician at Human Longevity Inc.), Jim Mellon (Chairman & Co-Founder Juvenescense ; Global Investor ), Greg Grinberg (Actualfood Founder & CEO), Phil Newman (Founder, First Longevity, Editor-in–Chief Longevity.Technology), and many more.
🇬🇧 The Nutrition and the Biology of Ageing conference is being hosted by the Biochemical Society and the British Society for Research on Ageing, and will feature Brian Kennedy of the National University of Singapore. Conference will take place at University of Kent Canterbury, UK on September 12-14.
5/ Jobs in longevity 🧑💼
Insilico Medicine // Business Development Consultant // Europe-based - remote
Juvena Therapeutics // Machine Learning Engineer – Drug Discovery // Palo Alto, CA
Relation Therapeutics // Senior Scientist II // London, UK
Elevian // Protein Biochemistry Scientist // Newton, MA
Deciduous Therapeutics // Senior Research Associate Scientist // San Francisco, CA
The big question - do you take metformin or have you considered taking it for it's potential longevity benefits?