A study compared mice who took semaglutide – the drug in Ozempic and Wegovy – to mice who didn’t. The mice who were on the drug had improvements in their blood sugar, appearance and behavior. They also lived months longer.
The mice who took the drug lived about 100 days longer than the mice who didn’t. While that might not sound like a huge amount, that’s a 12 percent increase in longevity. The average U.S. human lifespan is 79 years. It would be the equivalent of a human living 9.5 extra years. As always, it is essential to remember that animal research does not directly mean human research. Studies would need to use humans to see if the same effect is seen in people.
“We are very excited by this new study, because it could potentially broaden the application of GLP-1 medicines to healthy aging individuals to extend lifespan and healthspan,” said author Danica Chen, a professor of metabolic biology and nutrition at UC Berkeley.
The researchers saw that the mice on the drug had fewer “hallmarks of aging.” They had better muscle and cognitive function. They had less inflammation, less buildup of damaged DNA and their mitochondria were behaving in a healthy manner. All of that contributes to a longer life.
The mice in the study were older females. They were 20 months old. That’s the mouse equivalent of a 60-year-old human. They were given semaglutide every day for the rest of their lives. The control group was the same age but got saline shots.
In another experiment, they looked to see if the drug was playing a role or if it was that the mice ate less. They had one group of mice on semaglutide and one group on a calorie-restricted diet. All the mice lost weight, were physically fit and had good coordination. However, mice on the drug were also more willing to learn new things, remembered new things better and had better blood sugar regulation.
Before it gets to human testing, more testing is needed in mice. This study only used female mice. Studies often only use one sex, as it gives cleaner results and allows for fewer variables. But you can’t draw universal conclusions from the work.
“One intervention that works in one gender does not necessarily generalize to another gender,” said Ho Ko, a neuroscientist at the Chinese Univ. of Hong Kong.
However, while it isn’t conclusive, it is promising. “This is a very rigorous animal study that showed a positive signal,” said Michael Corley, an aging biologist at UC San Diego, who wasn’t involved in this study.
