Researchers have discovered that a drug originally used to treat diabetes has strong anti-ageing properties.
They even claimed that under the right conditions, people can live up to 120 years old with the help of this drug, Science Alert reported.
The drug, known as metformin, first debuted on the market 60 years ago. It is currently being taken by millions of people around the world to treat diabetes. But through previous and current studies on the drug, researchers discovered that people who take it regularly tend to live longer than those who don't have diabetes.
This is a surprising finding since diabetes is known to reduce a person's lifespan and is associated with various other diseases.
Upon closer inspection, the researchers found out that metformin has properties that can slow down the degeneration of cells. As explained by Fox News, the drug increases the flow of oxygen which delays the process involved in cell division, which leads to ageing.
Apart from ageing, the drug can also prevent the development of major disease that can affect cells.
"People on metformin get 30 percent less cancers, almost every cancer except maybe prostate cancer," Nir Barzilai of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and co-author of the study said according to Science Alert.
"Additionally, there is a study that suggests people on metformin who, when they start taking metformin, are more obese and sicker than people without diabetes, they outlive people without diabetes."
To further prove the effectiveness of metformin's anti-ageing properties, the researchers are planning to carry out a series of tests. This time, the tests will focus on how the drug can be used to delay the ageing process and even death.
The research team has already received the approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to carry out the necessary tests. Previously, the researchers tested the drug on roundworms and saw positive results. For the next batch of tests, they will proceed with human clinical trials.
"I have been doing research into ageing for 25 years and the idea that we would be talking about a clinical trial in humans for an anti-ageing drug would have been thought inconceivable," Gordon Lithgow of California's Buck Institute for Research on Ageing said according to The Telegraph.
"But there is every reason to believe it's possible," he added. "The future is taking the biology that we've now developed and applying it to humans. 20 years ago ageing was a biological mystery. Now we are starting to understand what is going on."
