Ozempic extends lifespan of mice, a new study finds

Now a new study in mice suggests that starting semaglutide, a GLP-1 (glucagonlike peptide 1) medication sold under the brand names Wegovy and Ozempic, in old age extends the lifespan by about 12 percent, El.kz citesScientific American.

In the study, scientists gave semaglutide to female mice that were 20 months old—roughly equivalent in age to a woman in her 60s—and injected them with the drug for the rest of their lives. Against a comparison group of the same age that ate freely and received only saline shots, the mice’s median lifespan rose by about 12 percent—from 742 days to 834.

Perhaps, she reasoned, by slowing aging itself through the same calorie restriction effect, the drug would push back the diseases that aging can bring on. It worked.

Mice on semaglutide explored more, balanced longer on a rotating rod, ran farther on a treadmill and solved a maze faster—gains that held even after the researchers accounted for the animals just being leaner than their peers. Compared with the untreated animals, their tissues were less worn out and inflamed, and they died later.

Then Chen and her team set up a separate, five-month experiment in which a group of late-life mice got the drug while another group was simply fed 24 percent less—about the same amount of food as the treated mice had cut back on because of appetite suppression. Semaglutide treatment matched the diet on measures of muscle strength and coordination.

To see whether the drug works through the same biological mechanism as dieting, the team sequenced gene activity in the livers of treated mice and compared that to existing data on calorie restriction. The overlap was significant: both calorie restriction and the GLP-1 quieted down inflammation and fat processing, and both stepped up the genes for handling blood sugar and maintaining proteins. The results suggests semaglutide mimics calorie restriction but has an additional power: the GLP-1 mice had better memory scores, curiosity levels and blood sugar.