Weight loss drugs open a new path against aging

BarcelonaTo the list of already known beneficial health effects of semaglutide medications, such as Ozempic or Wegovy, associated with weight loss and improved glucose control, researchers at the University of California, Berkeley (United States) have now added another: they could contribute to increasing longevity and, above all, quality of life. In a study with aged female mice that received semaglutide for three months, researchers observed that the animals improved physical, metabolic, and cognitive function and, moreover, lived longer than those who did not receive this drug.

According to the researchers, while some of these effects could be due to caloric restriction – semaglutide medications reduce appetite –, associated with improved health and longevity in various species, others go further and could be related to aging mechanisms.

“We already suspected that semaglutide could have systemic effects beyond causing weight loss. The question was how much they could be related to aging mechanisms,” points out Salvador Macip, a researcher at the University of Leicester (United Kingdom) and the Pasqual Maragall Foundation, leading the UOC's health sciences studies. “This is the first study to confirm this relationship,” he adds. However, the authors of this study call for caution: more long-term research is needed to know if these medications could have similar effects on aging and life expectancy in humans.

More healthy years

Semaglutide medications mimic the action of GLP-1, an intestinal hormone that helps regulate appetite and blood sugar levels, and are used to treat type 2 diabetes and obesity. Previous clinical trials have already shown that they also reduce the risk of cardiovascular, kidney, and liver disease. And they even have relevant beneficial effects on neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's, although, for now, it is not known how the drug causes these effects.

In this new work, published in Nature, researchers focused on finding out how much of the benefits could be explained by caloric restriction. In an experiment with mice, they found that those administered semaglutide lived on average about 100 days longer than their counterparts. In addition, during the three months they received the drug, they observed an improvement in the mobility and physical activity of the animals, as well as greater activity of neural stem cells and the formation of new neurons in some regions of the brain.

“The effects on increased life expectancy are small. The most interesting thing is that they improve quality of life at the end of life, which is what is sought: to prolong the years with good health as much as possible,” points out Macip, who is currently conducting research on young mice and semaglutide with preliminary results in line with those of this new work.

Even so, he recalls, “we are very far from being able to extrapolate these results to humans.” These positive effects beyond weight loss would need to be confirmed, and it would need to be evaluated whether the benefits outweigh the unwanted negative effects, such as muscle loss, which in advanced ages contributes to increased fragility. It will also be necessary to investigate whether the beneficial effects are repeated in people who are not diagnosed with obesity or age-related diseases. All in all, this discovery opens a new avenue of research towards healthier aging.